MONROVIA, LIBERIA — From his upbringing in Kayken, Grand Kru County, to senior academic leadership at the University of Liberia, Associate Professor Dr. Josephus Gbala-hinnih Moses Gray has built a professional career spanning university administration, international relations, diplomacy, journalism, research, and teaching, reflecting a sustained commitment to education and intellectual development.
Dr. Gray, who currently serves as Dean of the Amos C. Sawyer College of Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Liberia, has combined academic qualifications earned in Liberia and abroad with professional assignments in diplomatic institutions and higher education. His career also includes authorship, international lecturing, postgraduate supervision, and service to educational institutions beyond the University of Liberia.
His recent arrival in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, for planned academic engagements with university officials provides another opportunity to draw on this experience. However, his professional story extends well beyond his current administrative responsibilities, beginning in southern Liberia, where his early upbringing helped shape his understanding of education, discipline, and public service.
A native of Liberia, Dr. Gray comes from Kayken, a village in the Barclayville District of Grand Kru County. He was born at James Jinkens Dossen Medical Hospital in Harper City, Maryland County, and completed his elementary and secondary education in Grand Kru and Maryland counties before moving to Monrovia to pursue higher education.
He credits his upbringing in Kayken, where he was raised by his uncle and father figure, Honourable Glay Nimely, a traditional statesman, with helping him understand the importance of education and the value of life. Those early lessons formed part of the foundation for a career that eventually took him into international academic and diplomatic settings.
His higher education began at the University of Liberia, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Communication, specializing in Print Journalism, followed by a master’s degree in International Relations. He subsequently pursued doctoral studies at CEDS University in Paris, France, earning a Ph.D. in International Relations and Diplomacy after seven years of study. His doctoral education was supported by a French government scholarship that covered 75 percent of the cost.
Beyond these degrees, Dr. Gray has completed additional professional training in diplomacy, research, journalism, foreign policy, development communication, research methodology, and educational leadership. His credentials include a diploma in Mid-Career Diplomacy from the Chinese Foreign Affairs University in Beijing, a research diploma from the Bibliothèque nationale de France, and a journalism diploma from the International Center for Journalists in Washington, D.C.
He has also received an advanced Certificate of Recognition from Sharda University in India in connection with his work as a visiting professor. Other postgraduate diplomas and certificates listed in his professional profile reflect training and study associated with institutions and programs in Paris, Geneva, Beijing, Washington, D.C., Cape Town, Rabat, Accra, Dakar, and Monrovia.
The range of his training has complemented a career that moves between academic instruction, international policy, diplomacy, and research. His professional background demonstrates the value of combining formal education with practical experience, particularly in fields where international affairs and national development intersect.
Before assuming his current leadership role at the University of Liberia, Dr. Gray served in several diplomatic and government positions. These included Senior Policy Adviser to Liberia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Assistant Foreign Minister for Public Affairs, Political Counselor at the Liberian Embassy in Paris, and Chargé d’Affaires at Liberia’s Permanent Mission to the Swiss Federation and the United Nations in Geneva.
He also worked as a Senior Research Fellow at the International Institute of Research for Strategic and Foreign Policy Studies in Paris. The combination of government service, diplomatic representation, and research has informed his work as an academic in international relations and diplomacy.
At the University of Liberia, Dr. Gray serves as an Associate Professor of International Relations in the Graduate Program in International Studies, in addition to his responsibilities as dean. His administrative position places him at the center of academic leadership within the Amos C. Sawyer College of Social Sciences and Humanities, while his teaching and research contribute to the university’s postgraduate and broader academic programs.
His professional record also includes service as an adjunct lecturer, teaching assistant, instructor, and chairperson of the Department of English and Literature. He has taught at the United Methodist University and African Methodist Episcopal University in Monrovia, as well as at Sharda School of Humanities and Social Sciences in India.
During his visiting professorship at Sharda University, he contributed to academic instruction and postgraduate research. His record includes supervision of three doctoral dissertations and more than 50 master’s theses at the University of Liberia, according to his professional profile.
Such responsibilities are important within higher education because postgraduate supervision helps students develop research skills, strengthen analytical thinking, and contribute to scholarly work in their chosen fields. The long-term value of this work lies not only in the number of students supervised but also in the quality of the research produced and the professional development of the graduates.
Dr. Gray has also served as Co-Chair of the Board of Trustees of Grand Kru Technical College in Barclayville City and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Dr. Amos Claudius Sawyer Educational Foundation. He previously served as Acting President of Grand Kru Technical College, where he helped initiate classes, develop curricula, and facilitate the recruitment of the institution’s first faculty members and staff.
His involvement with Grand Kru Technical College links his professional responsibilities to the county from which he originates. The work of establishing classes, curricula, and staffing is foundational to an institution’s ability to deliver educational programs and establish its academic operations.
He also serves as Executive Director of the collaborative University of Liberia-Sharda University Center of Excellence, a role that reflects his continued involvement in institutional cooperation and academic engagement.
Alongside teaching and administration, Dr. Gray has developed a body of published work. He has authored three books, including The Effect of Diplomacy: Liberia-USA-China’s Triangular Relations, which his profile says is available in 162 countries and has been translated into French, Spanish, Italian, and Chinese. A fourth book is anticipated for release in March 2027.
His writing has examined subjects connected to international relations and diplomacy, fields that are particularly relevant to Liberia’s engagement with international partners. His profile also credits him with more than 300 peer-reviewed articles published in international and local journals, as well as lectures delivered at forums in Beijing, Rabat, Washington, D.C., and Greater Noida, India.
In another development highlighted in his professional biography, a U.S. production company in Hollywood has adapted some of his work into a film. Further details about the production, its title, and release arrangements were not provided in the information accompanying his profile.
Dr. Gray’s career reflects several strands of professional activity that are often treated separately: university teaching, academic management, research, public service, and diplomacy. His trajectory illustrates how expertise developed through education can be applied across institutions and professional environments, although the lasting contribution of any academic career is ultimately measured by the quality of its scholarship, the students it helps prepare, and the institutions it helps strengthen.
His current visit to Côte d’Ivoire brings that combination of academic and international experience into focus. During the approximately one-week trip, he plans to meet academic officials at Félix Houphouët-Boigny University and L’Université Charles Louis De Montesquieu to discuss potential collaboration and engage with an existing institutional partner.
As Dean of the Amos C. Sawyer College of Social Sciences and Humanities, he is expected to resume oversight of the college following his return. In the meantime, Mrs. Isa Paula McBorrough Kendor, Chairperson of the Department of French Studies, is expected to serve as Officer-in-Charge.
Reflecting on his personal journey, Dr. Gray has expressed gratitude for the protection and blessings he believes have sustained him through professional challenges. “I am deeply grateful to the Most High for His abundant blessings and protection. When God is with us, who can stand against us?” he said.
His account of the journey from southern Liberia to international academic and diplomatic settings places personal determination, educational opportunity, and professional service at the center of his story. For Liberia’s higher education sector, his continuing work in teaching, research, institutional leadership, and international engagement provides a reminder that the development of academic institutions depends on sustained investment in people, scholarship, and opportunities for cooperation.
