Christine Johnson McPhail

Christine Johnson McPhail (February 1, 1946 – March 1, 2026) was an American academic administrator who was the thirteenth president of St. Augustine's University from 2021 to 2023.

Life and career McPhail was born in Tyler, Texas, on February 1, 1946, to Mary and Otis Johnson. She would grow up there. Her mother was a homemaker and her father was a sharecropper who later started a small business in Tyler. She attended Emmett Scott High School. Her 1987 dissertation was titled, Academically Underprepared Students in the California Community Colleges. Clive Grafton was her doctoral chairperson. She was its first Black and first female president. McPhail was later a professor of practice at the John E. Roueche Center for Community College Leadership at Kansas State University.

Her death from cancer was announced on March 1, 2026. McPhail was 80.