Search committee selects 4 finalists for presidency at Nashville State Community College

A search advisory committee has selected four finalists for the next president of Nashville State Community College. All four will participate in campus visits and forums during the week of Feb. 12, the next step in the selection process.

The finalists are:

• Dr. Annesa Cheek, executive vice president, Ohio Association of Community Colleges, Sinclair Community College in Dayton, OH.
• Dr. Kimberly K. Estep, chancellor of Western Governors University—Tennessee, Franklin, TN.
• Dr. Pamela J. Haney, vice president for academic affairs at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, IL.
• Dr. Shanna L. Jackson, associate vice president of Columbia State Community College and chief operating officer of CSCC’s Williamson Campus, Franklin, TN.

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-nscc-2018

Each candidate will spend time on Nashville State’s main campus on White Bridge Road 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: Cheek, 1:15-2:15 p.m. Feb. 13; Jackson, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Feb. 14; Estep, 2:45-3:45 p.m. Feb. 15, and Haney, 2:30-3:30 p.m. Feb. 16. The forums will be held in Room C-210 on the second floor of the Clement Building on Nashville 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 and interview each of the finalists to select one candidate for nomination to the full Board of Regents, which will appoint the next president.

The Board of Regents approved the Nashville State search criteria at its Sept. 22 quarterly meeting and appointed a 19-member Presidential Search Advisory Committee. The committee's charge was to identify and interview candidates and narrow the applicant pool to three to five finalists.

The advisory committee included five members of the Board of Regents, and representatives of the Nashville State faculty, staff, students and alumni and the region the college serves. It was chaired by Regent Joey Hatch, a Nashville State alumnus. Other board members who served on the committee were Regents Emily J. Reynolds, the board’s vice chair; Greg Duckett; Mike Krause, executive director of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, and Fran Marcum.

A public forum was held at the college on Oct. 25, 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. George Van Allen, who retired in December after serving as Nashville State’s fourth president for nearly 25 years.

The search committee worked with executive search firm Greenwood/Asher & Associates to help identify a broad range of highly qualified candidates from around the country. The process resulted in 66 applicants.

Founded in 1970, Nashville State Community College is a comprehensive two-year public college primarily serving Davidson, Cheatham, Dickson, Houston, Humphreys, Montgomery and Stewart counties in northern Middle Tennessee. The college has six campuses: the main campus on White Bridge Road, East Davidson Campus in Donelson, Southeast Campus at Hickory Hollow, and in Clarksville, Dickson and Waverly, with a seventh site expected to open in Madison in 2019. Nashville State awards the Associate of Arts, Associate of Science, Associate of Fine Arts, Associate of Applied Science and Associate of Science in Teaching degrees, and technical certificates in a total of 81 different programs. It has over 8,000 students enrolled.