AUGUSTA, Ga. (WFXG) - A new month means new leadership at augusta university, as president russell keen begins his first day.

In a presidential welcome reception, Monday, Keen introduced himself and shared some of his goals with students, faculty and community stakeholders.

President keen grew up in the area and says he’s extremely humbled by the opportunity.

He tells FOX54 he started the day in the classroom and had this message for students. “if you’re a first-generation college student and you’re trying to figure it out, you might hear voices in your own head or from other people saying you can’t do it and it doesn’t matter," he says. "But, I’m living proof that an education can change your life and that an education can contribute to the community and the state of humanity if you just continue to do it and see it through.”

The new president and first lady Karen Keen are enthusiastic about what’s to come. With the fall semester quickly approaching, catapulting the university forward is top of mind.

“we want to be one of the top 60, then top 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, 5 and 1, that’s our goal. but, we need to start where we are, we need to recruit some of the best faculty in the world. we’ve got some already, but we need to recruit more and we want to grow our enrollment at augusta university, we want to continue to provide programs that are competitive and that will meet the workforce challenges of this state and beyond.”

president keen wants everyone who walks on augusta university’s campus to feel a sense of place and engagement, while also helping to build the school's infrastructure.

“new space for our researchers to really go through and tackle disease and break some of the chains of cardiovascular disease, cancer, brain health. We just need more space and so, we’re really going to go forward with a lot of enthusiasm to get our community involved, our philanthropists, our corporations and our foundations to really go to the state and federal level to help us bring more resources to augusta.”

president keen wants to be known as someone who brings everyone together that’s students, staff, health system and at the state level.

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