AUSTIN, TX - Huston-Tillotson University, a private historically black university located in Austin, Texas has named a new president to oversee the operations of their university.

The Huston-Tillotson University Board of Trustees on Wednesday (April 1) announced Colette Pierce Burnette as the institution's sixth President and Chief Executive Office, effective July 1, 2015. Pierce Burnette becomes the first female president of the merged Huston-Tillotson University and the second female president in the institution's 140-year history.

Pierce Burnett is the former Chief Executive Officer of Central State University's satellite campus in Dayton, Ohio. She will succeed Larry L. Earvin, who has been president since 2000 and is retiring at the end of June.

According to source; about 70 people applied for the position, with Pierce Burnette as one of three finalists. An 18-member search committee comprised of representatives from the HT Board of Trustees, faculty, staff, students, alumni, community and business leaders all help to narrow the list.

"It's a historic moment on many levels," said Colette Pierce Burnette. "When you come on a campus that's 100-something years old, you walk into a legacy, and that's historic."