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In 2004, Martin Lemelle was elected as the student government president at Grambling State University. However, the institution has been a force in his life since birth, essentially.
Lemelle is a Grambling native, former student of Grambling State University Laboratory High School and third-generation alumnus of the university. Both of his parents worked at Grambling State, his dad as the assistant men’s basketball coach and his mom as a faculty member and administrator.
“This is home,” he says. “Being a third-generation Gramblingite, as well as a part of the family business (at this point) in higher education, has been quite the journey.”
Martin Lemelle is a Grambling native, former student of Grambling State University Laboratory High School and third-generation alumnus of the university. He now serves as Grambling’s university president.
PROVIDED PHOTO
Much of Lemelle’s leadership style was adopted from watching his dad as an assistant coach. He says that his dad’s position was fundamental to his understanding of leadership, as he learned how to notice individual strengths to motivate and get the best out of each team member.
As a student and then in his career after college, Lemelle closely followed his mom’s blueprint by majoring in accounting and pursuing higher education administration. His mom served as a special assistant to the president and interim vice president of finance at Grambling — from 2016 to 2021, Lemelle served as the executive vice-president and chief operating officer, dedicating his time to Grambling’s financial stability and growth.
‘A son of the community’
While Lemelle’s passion for Grambling was sparked at a young age, his time as student government president laid the foundation for understanding the governance frameworks of higher education. As a member of the University of Louisiana System, he was able to grasp the role of the Board of Supervisors at a state institution, the dynamics of the state legislature and the advocacy required for funding.
He also learned to never underestimate the power of critical conversations.
When Lemelle assumed the position of student government president, former Gov. Kathleen Blanco was also starting her tenure. Grambling was hosting its student programming week, and Lemelle arranged the first official visit for Gov. Blanco on campus. She and other stakeholders were brought into the Grambling ecosystem to experience the university firsthand.
Martin Lemelle served as the 2004-2005 student government president at Grambling State University.
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“I carry that lesson going forward any time I need to advocate for our institution, shine a light on something that we’re doing well, have the conversation and make the invitation to the campus,” Lemelle said. “That’s very important, particularly when Baton Rouge dominates so much of our time and interest when the legislature is in session. But if you can get south Louisiana to come north more, it becomes very impactful and very important.”
Lemelle says, looking back at his SGA tenure, he is most proud of his contributions to the start of university president Horace A. Judson’s administration, as well as establishing a technology fee to supply more computers across campus.
“I had the benefit and the responsibility of being (Judson’s) first SGA president during his initial tenure as president of the university,” Lemelle said. “Being a thought partner for him at a very critical time in the university’s history, I had the benefit of not just being the student leader but a son of the community.”
Grambling State University in Grambling, La., Wednesday, April 3, 2024.
By JILL PICKETT | Staff photographer
When people become college student leaders, they often learn “adult skills” at an accelerated pace. Lemelle said that there was responsibility placed within his leadership from the beginning, whether that was serving as a voting member of the foundation board or having a say so in the selection of university presidents.
“It helps you bring the student perspective into the room,” Lemelle said. “As I think about every decision I make as a university president, now I have student engagement. And would I value that had I not been a student government president? Yes, but it is core to who I am because I was.”
Grambling: Where everybody is somebody
When Lemelle completed his tenure as student body president, he started an early internship on Capitol Hill with former senator Mary Landrieu, then worked with IBM and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
He graduated from Grambling magna cum laude in 2006 and started the financial management program at General Electric, learning about the intersection of business and policy. After a 12-year career in business and receiving a master’s in business administration, Lemelle started to think about a path into higher education.
In February of this year, he took office as the Grambling State University president. He is the youngest president of a Historically Black College and University in the nation at 39 years old.
Martin Lemelle Jr., is the new president of Grambling State University in Grambling, La., Wednesday, April 3, 2024.
By JILL PICKETT | Staff photographer
As for his legacy at Grambling, Lemelle already has an extensive resume. One could say people will remember him for the Student Success Center that’s in the works, the infrastructure development for a new digital library or the recently established endowed scholarship for global and experiential education through study abroad.
Lemelle said he “beams with pride” knowing that one in five Grambling students are from a foreign country. He added that it speaks to the reach of Grambling as an international destination for higher education, but the demographic also allows in-state students to connect with others across borders and languages.
“What does that do to the trajectory of their experiences from both sides?” Lemelle asked. “It really starts to open up the globalization of society. That’s very important to me from a research standpoint, but also just what it does to the transformative power of experiences.”
Despite his lengthy list of accomplishments, Lemelle would rather focus his legacy on each individual student experience.
“For me, it’s each and every interaction I get to have that leads a student to their next step of social and economic mobility,” Lemelle said. “Yes, I want those two factors to show up in the data — but if each student who gets to experience Grambling leaves Grambling better than they found it from a social and economic standpoint, I would say we’d be proud of that work.”
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