William D. Underwood was selected to serve as the 18th president of Mercer University beginning July 1, 2006 . Prior to joining Mercer, President Underwood served at Baylor University as Interim President and held the prestigious Leon Jaworski Chair at the Baylor School of Law, having joined the law faculty in 1990 after practicing law with a large firm in Dallas . President Underwood also took a leave of absence from the Law School from 1997-98 to serve as Baylor's General Counsel.

President Underwood is an accomplished educator and scholar. He was designated a Master Teacher at Baylor in recognition of extraordinary classroom teaching and was named an Outstanding University Professor in 2005. He is an elected member of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Foundation. He has published extensively on a range of topics and has presented a number of papers on how faith relates to higher education, especially at universities that share the historical and theological commitment of Baptists to intellectual and religious freedom and respect for religious diversity.

President Underwood is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, which awarded him the Juris Doctor degree. He graduated as class salutatorian and was an editor of the University of Illinois Law Review. Following graduation, he clerked for the Honorable Sam D. Johnson of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He also holds a degree from Oklahoma Baptist University, where he met his spouse, Lesli. They have two teenage children, Jessica and William.