The Northwest Florida State College Board of Trustees has selected Dr. Devin Stephenson as the fourth president in the college’s 53-year history.
Dr. Stephenson is currently the President of Big Sandy Community and Technical College in Prestonburg, Kentucky, a position he has held since 2015. Previously, Dr. Stephenson was employed as President at Three Rivers College in Missouri; Vice-President of External Affairs and Dean of Students at Bevill State Community College in Sumiton, Alabama; and Chief Executive Officer at Snead State Community College in Boaz, Alabama.
Dr. Stephenson received his Ed.D. in Administration of Higher Education and Master of Arts in Administration of Higher Education from the University of Alabama, his Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Birmingham-Southern College and his Associate of Science from Walker Junior College.
“Hiring a president to lead the college is one of the most important things we do as Trustees, and we vowed at the beginning of this search to take the time necessary to find the best candidate to lead NWF State College into the future,” said Brian Pennington, Chairman, NWF State College Board of Trustees. “We fully believe that Dr. Stephenson is that person and we are delighted to have him join our team of outstanding faculty and staff to provide top-notch educational opportunities to our students so they can be successful in their career and life goals.”
NWF State College Trustee members will commence negotiations to finalize a contract offer with Dr. Stephenson in the coming days with plans for the new college president to assume the presidency in early 2017. Dr. Stephenson succeeds Dr. Ty Handy who left NWF State College in December 2015 to accept the presidency at Jefferson Community and Technical College in Louisville, Ky.
“On behalf of the NWF State College Board of Trustees, I would like to extend our gratitude to Dr. Sasha Jarrell who has served as Interim President of the college since January,” added Pennington. “Her leadership during this past year has been exceptional and we look forward to her continued contributions to advance the goals of the college.”
“Serving the college as Interim President has been a wonderful experience,” said Dr. Jarrell. “I have enjoyed working with our community, faculty, staff and students in this capacity and I look forward to working under the leadership of Dr. Stephenson.”
NWF State College Trustees also extended their gratitude to community members, college faculty, staff and students, as well as the members of the Presidential Search Advisory Committee and Myers McRae Executive Search & Consulting for the time and effort they invested in assisting the Board of Trustees throughout this process. Their participation and the quality of work they exhibited throughout the process is to be commended.
“There are many great days ahead for NWF State College. Our mission is to improve lives through education and we are delighted to welcome Dr. Stephenson to lead us forward,” added Pennington. “We are excited about what the future holds for our college, our students and the communities of Okaloosa and Walton Counties.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Northwest Florida State College chooses Dr. Devin Stephenson as next leader