Mikie Sherrill, the Democratic nominee for governor of New Jersey, has picked Dale G. Caldwell, the president of Centenary University, as the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor.
The 65-year-old Caldwell is a Methodist pastor who has held a variety of government posts.Â
He became the 15th president of Hackettstown-based Centenary in 2023 and the first African-American to lead the 158-year-old Warren County university.  Â
Caldwell is the pastor of the Covenant United Methodist Church in Plainfield and is a third-generation clergyman. His father was involved in the civil rights movement and marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
He served on the New Brunswick Board of Education for 26 years, resigning 14 months ago to focus on his college presidency. Caldwell also served as chairman of the New Brunswick Housing Authority.
Caldwell worked for Deloitte Consulting for more than a decade and then became the executive director of the Newark Alliance. After that post, he served as the assistant commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs for Gov. Jim McGreevey and became chief operating officer of that agency.
Caldwell logged about 25 years as a member of the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey, which administers shared services agreements for school districts in Middlesex, Mercer, Somerset, and Union counties.
He also worked as the head of two charter schools in Asbury Park and Trenton, and served as the executive director of the Rothman Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Fairleigh Dickinson University.
In 2006, he became the president and CEO of the United States Tennis Association, becoming the first African-American to hold that post. An accomplished tennis player, Caldwell also founded the Black Tennis Hall of Fame. In 2021, he was inducted into the United States Tennis Association Eastern Tennis Hall of Fame.
