Michael F. Adams (B.A., speech and history, David Lipscomb College, 1970; M.A., communication research methodologies, Ohio State University, 1971; Ph.D., political communication, Ohio State University, 1973) is the president of the University of Georgia.
Adams began his career in education as faculty at Ohio State University 1973-1975. He later served as vice president for university affairs at Pepperdine University 1982-1988.
Adams was president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky for nine years, 1988-1997. While Adams was president at Centre, the endowment tripled to $120 million, faculty salaries nearly doubled, and Centre was usually first in the nation in percentage of alumni making donations to the school each year.
Since 1997 Adams has served as president of the University of Georgia. Adams grew up in Georgia until the ninth grade.
He is currently serving a two-year term as president of the Southeastern Conference.
Prior to entering higher education, Adams held a number of political positions. He served as chief of staff for Senate Minority Leader Howard Baker 1975-1979 and as an aide to Governor Lamar Alexander of Tennessee 1980-1982. Adams was the Republican nominee for the United States House of Representatives in 1980 for Tennessee's Fifth District, but he lost the general election to Democrat Bill Boner 118,506 votes (65.4%) to 62,746 (34.6%)
