Victor Ukpolo
American economist
Victor O. Ukpolo (born 1950 in Lagos, Nigeria) is the former Chancellor of Southern University at New Orleans.
Ukpolo is most known for his efforts in restoring SUNO to operation after Hurricane Katrina, specifically his role in obtaining funds for SUNO's recovery, including $44 million for student housing, $32 million for classroom buildings, and various grants for other academic purposes. In 2012 the Carnegie Corporation selected Ukpolo as one of 45 naturalized citizens of the United States for Carnegie's Americans by Choice award.)
Modest beginnings
Ukpolo came to the United States at age 23 as a student at the University of Maryland at College Park from which he received his bachelor's degree. To finance his education, he worked in a restaurant washing dishes and drove taxicabs in the District of Columbia. He received his master's degree and Ph.D. from American University in the nation's capital. From there he steadily climbed through various assignments and challenges to the chancellorship at SUNO. He is thought to be the first native-born Nigerian to head a university in the United States.
Administrative background
Ukpolo's academic-administrative posts before becoming SUNO's seventh chancellor were in California and Tennessee. An economist, Ukpolo serves on the American Association of State Colleges and Universities’ Committee on Economic and Workforce Development.
Katrina aftermath
At SUNO, Ukpolo has demonstrated a knack for working with various types of people, his name being frequently in the news in the Greater New Orleans Area because of his efforts to remedy the damage to SUNO's campus by Hurricane Katrina. His efforts to rebuild included his leading a group of prominent local, state, and federal officials on a tour of the campus.
The public source identifies “Victor Ukpolo” as american economist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Victor, Ukpolo and American.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7926407. VIAF identifies the subject as 68713225. The Library of Congress control number is no2007086605. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950 and 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “Victor Ukpolo” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.