Academic Search Seeking President for Tennessee State University
April 10, 2024 – Education-focused executive recruiter Academic Search was recently selected by Tennessee State University to lead in its search for a new president. Current president Glenda Glove has announced that she is retiring. The assignment is being led by senior consultants Maria Thompson and John W. Garland. The Tennessee State University board of trustees is seeking an exceptional leader to serve as president to lead the school during a time of extraordinary momentum and opportunity.
Candidates should have successful experience in senior leadership and management at a university or a similarly complex organization as well as demonstrated knowledge and success in fiscal and financial management. They must have the ability to conduct and execute a multi-million-dollar comprehensive institutional advancement campaign. Candidates need to also have experience in establishing international partnerships and collaborations.
Academic Search is looking for candidates with demonstrated bi-partisan experience and success in actively engaging and building strong working relationships with city, state and national government leaders. They will need to have evidence of relational experience to advance the institutional agenda by building relationships and partnerships at local, state and national levels with corporations and key higher education or other organizations.
Founded in 1912, Tennessee State University is an urban, research, land grant institution with two locations in Nashville and the downtown Avon Williams location. It is the only state-funded historically black university in Tennessee and a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Tennessee State University offers 41 bachelor’s degrees, 23 master’s degrees, and eight doctoral degrees.
Higher Education Recruiters
For over three decades, Academic Search has been a leader in designing and implementing search processes for leaders of colleges and universities across the country. The firm has completed hundreds of executive searches for higher education institutions and related organizations, for roles ranging from presidents to provosts to deans. Academic Search has a formal relationship to a premier leadership development program. As the subsidiary of the American Academic Leadership Institute (AALI), the firm provides substantial financial support to a number of leadership identification, development, and support programs across all sectors of public and private higher education. The firm is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Related: Why Universities Have Stepped Up Efforts to Involve Search Firms
Dr. Thompson also serves as senior executive coach. She is a career educator with a distinguished history of leadership in higher education. Dr. Thompson has been president and CEO of Coppin State University, provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oneonta, and vice president for research and sponsored program at Tennessee State University, among other roles.
Academic Search Places New Provost for New Mexico State University
Academic Search has placed the new provost and chief academic officer for New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces. Alan R. Shoho, dean and professor emeritus of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, was selected for the position. The assignment was led by senior consultants Maria Thompson and Cynthia M. Patterson, along with associate consultant Lisa C. Rosenberg. “Dr. Shoho has tremendous experience both as an administrator and as a researcher in the fields of education and social justice,” said NMSU chancellor Dan Arvizu. “His vision for NMSU aligns with the progress we’ve made toward the goals outlined in our LEADS 2025 strategic plan, and I am sure he is the best fit to help elevate our research and social mobility initiatives.”
Before joining Academic Search in 2018, Mr. Garland served as executive chair of TM2 Education Search, which was established as an initiative of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund to identify and place candidates in top administrative posts at historically black colleges and universities. He began his career in higher education in 1988 as general counsel for the University of the District of Columbia. In 1991, he was named associate general counsel for the University of Virginia, where he became assistant to the president in 1993. Four years later, he returned to his undergraduate alma mater, Central State University, as president. Mr. Garland retired from Central State in 2012. In 2013, he was named president-in-residence at the Thurgood Marshall College Fund before helping to launch TM2 in 2016.
University of Nebraska Search
Academic Search has been retained by the University of Nebraska to lead in its search for a new president. Past president Ted Carter left the school last year to become the president of Ohio State University, a search that was led by Santa Barbara, CA-based Education Executives. The president must be the chief advocate and champion of the University of Nebraska at the state level by building relationships of trust and candor with the governor and members of the Nebraska Legislature; working similarly with Nebraska’s congressional delegation and the executive branch; and finally, working with the extraordinary philanthropists who have had major statewide, national, and global impact through their investments in the University of Nebraska.
Related: Academic Search Recruits President for Norwich University
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor; Lily Fauver, Senior Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
