Chancellor Recommends Brian Noland as ETSU’s Next President

Brian Noland is expected to be named the ninth president to lead East Tennessee State University pending approval by the Tennessee Board of Regents on Monday.

The Board will meet via telephone at 1:30 p.m. CST on Monday, Nov. 21, to consider TBR Chancellor John Morgan’s recommendation for Noland to replace Paul Stanton, who will retire from ETSU on Jan. 14 after leading the campus for some 15 years.

“Dr. Noland will be an outstanding president for ETSU,” expressed Morgan. “His proven experience as a leader and his exceptional commitment to the success of our students became evident when he met with campus and community members.

“Dr. Noland is well prepared to help ETSU and the Tennessee Board of Regents successfully meet the challenges of the Complete College Tennessee Act. He understands the connection between higher education and prosperity of the region and the state, and I believe he can be especially effective in helping the ETSU community embrace that reality.”

Noland, who currently serves as chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, was selected after an extensive nationwide search.

He has spent the last five years at West Virginia’s Higher Education Policy Commission, which serves in both a governing and coordinating capacity over the local boards of 11 public colleges and universities. While there he was responsible for developing and implementing the public policy agenda for the state’s higher education programs and served as the spokesperson and advocate for higher education.

Before returning to West Virginia, Noland worked at the Tennessee Higher Education Commission from 1998 through 2006 in increasingly responsible roles. Noland rose from assistant director of Academic Programs to director of Academic Affairs and was ultimately named associate executive director for THEC. In that role his responsibilities included the development and implementation of the state’s lottery scholarship program.

Noland has taught as an adjunct faculty member at Vanderbilt University, Tennessee State University and Nashville State Community College. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and both an M.A. degree in public policy studies and a bachelor’s degree in political science from West Virginia University. Noland’s resume is available at http://tinyurl.com/cnexj5n.

ETSU, which is governed by the TBR, is located in Johnson City and enrolls more than 15,000 students in more than 100 programs of study, including doctoral degrees in various fields, medicine among them. The university is recognized by the state for its unique mission focus in the area of health sciences and places special emphasis on addressing the needs of Southern Appalachia in areas of rural health care.

The Nov. 21 telephonic meeting is open to the public and press as observers. Those wishing dial-in information for the call should contact Monica Greppin-Watts at monica.greppin-watts@tbr.edu or 615-366-4417 before 9 a.m. CST on Nov. 21.

The TBR will hold its next regularly scheduled quarterly board meeting on Dec. 8 in Nashville.

The TBR is the nation’s sixth largest higher education system, governing 46 post-secondary educational institutions, including ETSU. The TBR system includes six universities, 13 two-year colleges and 27 technology centers, providing programs in 90 of Tennessee’s 95 counties to more than 200,000 students.