Office of the President

Our President

Dr. James Cousins was named the 36th president of Kentucky Wesleyan College in April 2024 and began his role on July 1, 2024. During his first year as president, Cousins steered Kentucky Wesleyan into a period of renewed momentum and focus. He oversaw the college’s level change and helped launch its first graduate program. He also led the creation of “Forward Ever, Together (2025–2028),” Wesleyan’s first comprehensive strategic plan in nearly a decade. His leadership has already brought significant financial progress. By his second year, Cousins significantly reduced operating expenses increased revenue, improved governance, and established new community and external partnerships including the Center for American Civics.

These accomplishments are built upon the foundation he established as provost and vice president of academic affairs, a role he held at Kentucky Wesleyan from 2021 until his appointment as president. As provost, Cousins spearheaded strategic initiatives that strengthened the College’s academic profile and student success. He designed and implemented a first-year student retention program that yielded substantial gains, reorganized online education to achieve record enrollment, oversaw the successful completion of the College’s SACSCOC fifth-year accreditation report, and developed key institutional partnerships that created expedited graduate and career pathways for Kentucky Wesleyan students. 

Before coming to Kentucky Wesleyan, Cousins served as associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at Western Michigan University, where he provided leadership in student success, recruitment, assessment, academic advising, accreditation, and curricular reform. He also held interim appointments as chair of Anthropology and chair of African American and Africana Studies and as Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Department of History.

He currently serves in several state, regional, and national leadership roles. He was elected Vice Chair and Chair-Elect of the American Council on Education, and is on the boards of the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities, HealthForce Kentucky, the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corporation, the Kentucky Institute for International Studies, and the McNeil Center for Early American Studies. He previously served on Kentucky’s Education Professional Standards Board by appointment of Governor Andy Beshear.

An historian specializing in the history of the Early American Republic, Dr. Cousins has presented at dozens of national and international conferences and has published over 50 articles, essays, reviews and translations in periodicals such as The Journal of Southern History, The Historian, The Journal of American History, The Journal of Educational Biography, Ohio Valley History, The Register of the Kentucky Historical Association, The History Teacher, and others. 

Cousins has also published two books: Horace Holley: Transylvania University and the Making of Liberal Education in the Early American Republic (Kentucky, 2016) and a co-authored work: Collaboration and the Future of Education: Preserving the Right to Think and Teach Historically (Routledge, 2016). His current book project, Aristocracy of Merit: College Presidents in the Early American Republic, examines the history of American college leadership in the early nineteenth century. His scholarly work also includes contributions to the Suda On Line project, the internationally recognized effort to translate and annotate the Byzantine encyclopedia Suda, one of the foundational reference works of the Greek intellectual tradition. 

His honors and fellowships include the Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship at the University of Chicago, a research fellowship from the Filson Historical Society, a research fellowship from the Kentucky Historical Society, and a scholar-in-residence appointment at Transylvania University. He was also featured in the PBS documentary Under Pressure: Changes & Challenges in Higher Education.

After beginning his career as a history and Latin teacher at Millersburg Military Institute in Millersburg, Ky., Dr. Cousins held teaching appointments at Kentucky State University, Berea College, Eastern Kentucky University, and the University of Kentucky. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University and both an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky.

Dr. Cousins and his wife, Carrie, a native of Georgetown, Kentucky, have one son, James “JP.” Carrie is a successful entrepreneur who owns and operates several coffee shops.