Dr. Frances Lucas-Tauchar, president of Millsaps College, has been elected president of the Southern University Conference. The announcement was made March 16 at the organization's annual meeting in San Antonio, Texas. Lucas-Tauchar, the tenth president of the Jackson college, has already begun her year-long term.

"The Southern University Conference is a distinguished organization with a long and impressive history," said Lucas-Tauchar, who previously served as vice-president of the group. "It is an honor and a pleasure to be named president of a group so committed to the educational process."

The Southern University Conference was formed in 1985 to examine the progress of education and other matters pertaining to college and graduate work. Membership in the select body is by invitation, and current members hail from thirteen states.

Lucas-Tauchar came to Millsaps from Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., where she served as Senior Vice President for Campus Life. A 1978 alumna of Mississippi State University, she received her M.A. and Ph.D. in administration of higher education from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. Lucas-Tauchar has also studied at the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University.

Lucas-Tauchar was recently named 2002 Business Woman of the Year by the Mississippi Business Journal. She is a member of the Southern Association of Student College Administrators, which awarded her the Bob Leach Award for outstanding contributions in 1998. Lucas-Tauchar is also a member of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (Region III), which honored her in 1995 with the John Jones Award for Outstanding Performance by a Dean.