Mildred Barnes Griggs

Mildred Barnes Griggs (nee Barnes; March 11, 1942 – July 28, 2025) was an American academic. She had a long career at the University of Illinois College of Education at which she was the first Black dean.

Mildred Barnes Griggs was born in Mariana, Arkansas.^[1] She was one of ten children and grew up on a cotton farm.^[2] She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and earned her master's degree and doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.^[1]

Griggs was the first black assistant professor to become a full professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.^[3] She later became the first Black dean of University of Illinois College of Education.^[4] With the Eastern Arkansas Economic Council, she advocated for black farmers for access to land, loans, and insurance by the United States Department of Agriculture.^[5] Griggs was named the 2006 S. A. Haley Lecturer at the 50th Annual Rural Life Conference sponsored by the School of Agriculture, Fisheries and Human Sciences at UAPB.^[6] Griggs was named at the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.^[7]

She and her husband, Alvin Scott Griggs, had two sons and two grandchildren.^[8] Griggs died on July 28, 2025.^[8]

• Research priorities and goals for vocational education personnel development - Mildred Barnes Griggs, National Center for Research in Vocational Education, University of California, Berkeley, 1990