Michael T. Benson

Michael T. Benson is president and professor of history at West Virginia University. A thirty-year veteran of various positions in public higher education, Michael has served as president of four different universities in Utah, Kentucky, and South Carolina, before taking his current post in Morgantown, West Virginia, in July 2025. Michael began his academic and professional career studying and working in Italy, England, and Israel for over six years. He spent 2020 as a Visiting Professor in the Department of History of Science and Technology at Johns Hopkins University.

Michael earned a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, a master’s degree from the Mendoza College of Business at University of Notre Dame, and a doctorate in modern history from the University of Oxford, where he was a Rotary Foundation Scholar and member of the Oxford Blues basketball team. He also completed a master’s degree in liberal arts from Johns Hopkins University and was elected to the National Honor Society of Graduate Liberal Studies (AGLSP).

Benson is the author of numerous publications, including three books: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel (Praeger, 1997); College for the Commonwealth: A Case for Higher Education in American Democracy (with Hal Boyd, University Press of Kentucky, 2017), and Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022). The Gilman biography was named one of the best higher education books of 2023 by Forbes Magazine. His volunteer work includes service on the Presidents Council of the Association of Governing Boards (AGB), on the Advisory Council for Education for Global Tech Security Commission (GTSC), and as chair of the Board of Trustees of Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), the nation’s oldest leadership honor society. Benson also served as the FBS presidential representative on the NCAA Board of Governors Committee to Promote Cultural Diversity and Equity, a 13-person association-wide committee.

Michael and his wife, Debi, are parents of 3 children: Truman a college soccer player in Utah; and Tatum and Talmage, both students at Myrtle Beach High School. He has two older children from a previous marriage: Emma, a medical/health reporter for KSL TV in Salt Lake City, Utah; and Samuel, a reporter for Politico in Washington, D.C.