Ero Aggelopoulou-Amiridis is proud to be a Gamecock
Posted on: May 2, 2022; Updated on: May 2, 2022
By Chris Horn, chorn@sc.edu, 803-777-3687
When Michael Amiridis was named the University of South Carolina’s 30th president in January, we rightly dubbed it a homecoming. The outgoing University of Illinois Chicago chancellor previously enjoyed more than two decades at USC as both a faculty member and an administrator.
But President-elect Amiridis isn’t the only Gamecock returning to the roost this summer. His wife, Ero Aggelopoulou-Amiridis, has just as deep a Carolina connection. In addition to her bachelor’s degree in math from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the university’s new first lady holds two advanced degrees from USC — a master’s in art history, ’97, and a Ph.D. in philosophy, ’12.
And she’s thrilled about coming back. In fact, if you ask for a favorite South Carolina memory, walking the Horseshoe tops her list. It’s where Aggelopoulou-Amiridis got in her steps when she was expecting, where she and her husband pushed the stroller when their kids were small and where the couple would catch up between classes and meetings.
“Michael and I used to meet right outside the Faculty House for lunch — he was working, I was a student,” she says. “I’m really looking forward to coming back to this very familiar campus that has been the stage of so many important events in my life.”
A liberal education
With three degrees in three disciplines, first lady Ero Aggelopoulou-Amiridis is a champion of higher learning. “A liberal education connects us to our past, to our present and most importantly to each other,” she says. “And it does so while teaching students some super-important intellectual skills. Thinking critically, writing well, communicating effectively — all of these skills help you actualize your intellectual potential, but they are also very, very important in the job market.”
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