Finalists chosen for Northeast State Community College presidency

A search advisory committee has selected two finalists for the next president of Northeast State Community College. Both candidates will participate in campus visits and forums during the week of Oct. 15, the next step in the selection process.

The finalists are:

• Dr. Bethany Flora, associate director, Center for Community College Leadership, East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tenn.
• Dr. Joel Welch, vice president, Instructional Services, Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, N.C.

The finalists’ resumes will be available for review on the Presidential/Executive Searches section of the Tennessee Board of Regents website at https://www.tbr.edu/hr/executivesearches/president-northeast-state-community-college.

Each candidate will spend time on Northeast State’s main campus in Blountville in meetings and participate in open forums with faculty, staff, students and the public. The forums are open to the public and the campus community.

Schedules for the forums are: Flora, 3-4 p.m. Eastern Time, Oct. 17; and Welch, 10:30-11:30 a.m., Eastern Time, Oct. 18. The forums will be in the auditorium of the Regional Center for Performing Arts on Northeast State’s main campus. They will also be live-streamed on the website above.

After the campus visits, TBR Chancellor Flora W. Tydings will gather feedback from the forums and meetings with each finalist to select one candidate for nomination to the full Board of Regents, which will appoint the next president.

The Board of Regents approved the Northeast State search criteria at its March 29 quarterly meeting and then appointed a 17-member Presidential Search Advisory Committee. The committee's charge was to identify and interview candidates and recommend finalists.

The advisory committee included four members of the Board of Regents, and representatives of the Northeast State faculty, staff, students and alumni, and the region the college serves. It was chaired by Regent Tom Griscom. Other board members who served on the committee were Regents Emily J. Reynolds, the board’s vice chair; Miles Burdine; and Danni Varlan.

A public forum was hosted at the college on Aug. 16, providing campus and community members an opportunity to express their views about the search and qualities they want in the next president.

The next president will succeed Dr. Janice Gilliam, who retired as president in the summer of 2017, and James King, who currently serves as interim president.

The search committee worked with executive search firm Greenwood/Asher & Associates to help identify a broad range of highly qualified candidates from across the country. The process resulted in more than 60 applicants nationwide.

Northeast State Community College is a comprehensive, two-year postsecondary institution located in Blountville, Tennessee. Northeast serves a five-county area of Carter, Johnson, Sullivan, Unicoi, and Washington counties, and enrolls over 6,100 credit-seeking students and over 500 non-credit students. In addition to the main campus in Blountville, Northeast delivers programming at campuses in Elizabethton, Gray, Johnson City and Kingsport.

The College System of Tennessee is the state’s largest public higher education system, with 13 community colleges, 27 colleges of applied technology and the online TN eCampus serving approximately 100,000 students. The system is governed by the Tennessee Board of Regents.