Major General, U.S. Air Force (Retired)
President of Liberty University

Dr. Dondi Costin began serving as Liberty University’s sixth president on July 1, 2023. Liberty’s academic year enrollment is currently over 140,000 students, with a residential enrollment of more than 16,000. Online enrollment is expected to surpass 131,000 this fall including over 40,000 students affiliated with the military. Students represent all 50 states, Washington D.C., and over 100 countries. They have over 4,000 fulltime and part-time faculty members. Liberty University has 700 unique programs of study, which include over 350 residential and over 600 online offerings.

Dr. Costin returned to Liberty, his alma mater, after five years as president of Charleston Southern University. He is a retired Major General with 36 years of service in a military career that culminated as a senior leader in the Pentagon, where he served as the eighteenth Air Force Chief of Chaplains.

Dr. Costin is a native of Wilmington, N.C., and was commissioned a second lieutenant upon graduation from the United States Air Force Academy in 1986. He then served successively as an industrial engineer evaluating air-to-ground precision guided munitions, chief of scientific analysis on a major command headquarters staff, and assistant professor of aerospace studies at Texas Christian University. After ten years as a line officer, he became an Air Force chaplain in 1996.

An ordained Southern Baptist minister, he was endorsed by the Liberty Baptist Fellowship during his 22 years as a chaplain. His chaplain assignments included service as Air Force Basic Military Training chaplain, senior flightline chaplain for both special operations and conventional forces in England, readiness instructor/evaluator preparing Chaplain Corps personnel for worldwide deployment, Air Staff branch chief, wing chaplain in Germany, senior chaplain for the air component mission in Southwest Asia, senior chaplain for Pacific Air Forces, and Air Force Chief of Chaplains.

As Chief of Chaplains, he established guidance and provided advice on all matters pertaining to the religious and moral welfare of Air Force personnel and their families. He led an Air Force Chaplain Corps of 2,000 chaplains and Religious Affairs Airmen and was the senior pastor for more than 664,000 personnel. As chairman of the Armed Forces Chaplain Board, he advised the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on religious, ethical, and quality-of-life concerns for the entire U.S. military.

Shortly after stepping into his role as Liberty University’s president in 2023, Dr. Costin implemented a collaborative initiative to gather insights and feedback from the university community to help create a strategic plan for 2024-29. Using the feedback from surveys and environmental scans, he and his team assessed the school’s current status as a leading Christian institution of higher education and identified growth opportunities with an unremitting dependency on God’s divine guidance for the future of the university. As the “minder of the mission, keeper of the culture, and steward of the strategy,” he intends to make Liberty the best Christian workplace possible through his commitment to Liberty’s founding mission of Training Champions for Christ.

Since his first week, Dr. Costin has become a familiar face on campus and one of Liberty’s greatest fans. Whether it’s Move-In Week, the Block Party, or a normal day between classes, he and his wife, Vickey, are welcomed with enthusiasm wherever they go. He supports the students in their endeavors inside and outside the classroom, encouraging their ideas and passions at every opportunity. Leading by example, he has joined students, faculty, and staff in serving others through LU Serve projects such as Serve Lynchburg and hurricane cleanup in Florida.

His military awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal, Gallant Unit Citation, Kosovo Campaign Medal, three Afghanistan Campaign Medals, Korean Defense Service Medal, and NATO Medal.

He has been married to Vickey for more than 35 years. Vickey earned a Bachelor of Music Education degree from The University of Southern Mississippi and a Master of Education degree from Texas Christian University. Her career as a public elementary school music teacher spanned more than 23 years and included teaching assignments in six states.