LITTLE ROCK — Four finalists, all with extensive administrative experience in higher education, were selected Friday to interview for the job of director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
The department's coordinating board selected four from a list of 17 applicants after a closed session Thursday. They are: Betty Overton of Spring Arbor, Mich.; James Purcell of Edmond, Okla.; Kermit McMurry of Oklahoma City; and Lawrence Tyree of Sarasota, Fla.
Tyree late Friday informed the Higher Education Department that he is no longer in the running because he is accepting a job elsewhere.
Interviews will begin within the next month, said Dick Trammel, chairman of the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board. Trammel hopes to select a qualified candidate whose personality and priorities best match the array of parties the higher education director works with.
"You've got to know the people; you've got to visit with them," he said. "And I personally would want to talk with some people one on one that knew them."
The Higher Education Department director develops and recommends state aid for the public two- and four-year colleges and universities, runs the state's student financial aid programs and several federal and state grants, and oversees the higher education institutions' missions and state's master plan for higher education. He or she will have to work with college and university leaders, the governor, Legislature, and students.
Overton is vice president for academic affairs and English professor at Spring Arbor University in Michigan. Previously, she was higher education and program director for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. In the late 1980s, she was dean of the Graduate School at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Overton commuted from Michigan last academic year to co-teach a core leadership course at the Clinton School for Public Service. She's on the school's list of visiting professors.
She holds a doctoral degree in higher education leadership from the George Peabody College at Vanderbilt University and master's and bachelor's degrees in English from Tennessee State University. She also attended the Institute for Educational Management at Harvard University in 1990.
Purcell is associate vice chancellor for strategic planning and analysis for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
Purcell said in his application letter that he has developed initiatives to increase adult degree completion and respond to the shortage in health workers. He has coordinated a program to increase the number of degreeholding adults in Oklahoma and a program to assess student preparation for and performance in college.
He has previously worked in administrative positions at the University System of Georgia, the Louisiana Board of Regents and the Alabama Community College System.
A native of Alabama, Purcell holds a doctoral degree in higher education administration from the University of Alabama, a master's of education, counseling and guidance degree from University of Montevallo in Alabama and a bachelor's degree in public administration from Auburn University.
McMurry is vice chancellor for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education.
McMurry said in his letter that he has served as the chancellor's liaison to the Council on Student Affairs, Oklahoma Student Government Association, Student Advisory Board and other boards. He works with two-year college presidents on community-based workforce development.
He has previously served in the cabinet of former Nebraska Gov. Kay Orr as a member of the higher education policy cabinet and as chief executive officer of the Nebraska Department of Social Services. He has served as executive vice president at Grambling State University in Louisiana.
McMurry holds a doctor of philosophy degree in higher education administration from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, master's and bachelor's degrees in education from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an associate's degree from Cowley College in Arkansas City, Kan.
He has also attended The Thomas Lakin Institute for Mentored Leadership in Fresno, Calif., and the Institute for Higher Education Management at Harvard University's Graduate School of Business.
Tyree recently served as interim president of the Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kan. He lives in Florida.
Arkansas, Pages 14 on 10/27/2007