Dr. Johnny Moore was born and raised in Old Washington, Arkansas (a very small historical town located in Southwest Arkansas). In 1985, he graduated from Washington-Lincoln High School as class valedictorian. Additionally, he was an All-State basketball player and scored nearly 2,000 points and is the all-time leading scorer in the school’s history. As a result of his success both in and outside of the classroom, he was recruited by several major universities and was offered full-academic and athletic scholarships. However, he decided to stay close to home and attend Philander Smith College (PSC) in Little Rock.
During his tenure at PSC, he continued his success both on and off the court. He was a constant on the Dean’s list and an All-American caliber basketball player. As a freshman, he shared the District 17 Player of the Week honors with former NBA All-Star Scottie Pippen. He started 107 straight games at point guard for PSC with single games highs of 50, 48, 46, 43 and 42 points. In 1989, he graduated (with honors) from PSC with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. Shortly after graduating, he played a brief stint with Hubert “Geese” Ausbie (former Harlem Globetrotter) and the “Geese Ausbie” All-Stars.
Even so, another goal became very important to him. With the guidance of several of his professors, he recognized how rewarding academic achievement could be and pursued graduate degrees in mathematics.
Dr. Moore began his teaching career as a teaching associate while pursuing a Master of Science degree in mathematics at Arkansas State University. In 1990, he accepted a full-time teaching position at East Arkansas Community College (EACC). During his final year at EACC, he was chosen as the Distinguished Professor of the Year.
During the summer of 1994, Dr. Moore accepted a full-time teaching position at Indian River State College (IRSC). In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he coached the IRSC Women’s Basketball team. After two years, he decided to step down from coaching to pursue his doctorate at the Florida Institute of Technology while (still) teaching full-time at Indian River State College. At Indian River, he quickly rose through the ranks from Master Instructor, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Full (tenured) Professor/ Mathematics Department Chairman to the position of Vice-President of Student Affairs all within a nine-year period.
However, after spending 16 successful years in Florida, he (still) had a very strong desire to relocate back to his home state of Arkansas. Two years ago, he accepted an Executive Vice President position at Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas. After serving two years in Tyler, Dr. Moore was chosen as the 13th president of Philander Smith College (his alma mater).
He is married to Sequoyah, an elementary school teacher. They have a 7 year old son (Johnathan) and 8 month daughter (Jayna).