During his nearly 17-year tenure at FAMU, where he established the Life Gets Better Scholarship and Graduate School Feeder programs, he more than doubled enrollment while simultaneously raising academic standards. He increased the number of National Achievement Scholars at the school ranking first in the nation three times, out recruiting Harvard and Stanford, and made FAMU the nation’s number one producer of African Americans with baccalaureate degrees and third in the nation as the baccalaureate institution of origin for African-American doctoral degree recipients. His crowning achievement came when FAMU was selected as the first ever TIME Magazine/Princeton Review “College of the Year” in 1997.
Humphries is respected throughout the United States and internationally for his keen insights on the education of minority students, particularly in math and science, and his unique and visionary approaches to producing successful educational outcomes in underrepresented disciplines.
He has served as chairman and Board of Directors of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges; member of the Board of Trustees for the University of Pittsburgh and member of former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s White House Advisory Committee on Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Corporate America has also sought his expertise as a member of the Board of Directors of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.; Brinker International; Barnett Bank (Bank of America), Florida; the National Merit Corporation; the Princeton Review, Academy for Educational Development (AED) and as founder and board member for the Thurgood Marshall Fund.
Humphries holds a B.S. degree in chemistry from FAMU (magna cum laude) and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh, where he was the first African American to obtain a Ph.D. in this discipline.