Swainsboro –
DTAE Interim Commissioner Ron Jackson today announced the creation
of a nine-member search committee whose job will be to select three
candidates for consideration to be the next president of Swainsboro
Technical College.
The new president
will replace Dr. Glenn Diebert, who left the college in August to
become president of Southwest Georgia Technical College in Thomasville.
“Swainsboro
Tech provides great opportunities for its students to prepare for
rewarding careers in Georgia’s workforce, and we expect the
next president to be the kind of leader who can build upon the college’s
record of achievement,” said Jackson. “We’re very
grateful to the members of the search committee for their dedication
to the college and for offering their time and expertise to assist
the state in this important process.”
The committee
will be chaired by Ken Warnock, who is also the chairman of the
Swainsboro Chamber of Commerce.
The entire interview
and selection process is expected to take four to six months, beginning
with a job announcement and an open application period, which
begins today. After completion of their local interviews, the committee
will refer three candidates on to personal meetings with Jackson
at DTAE’s Atlanta headquarters.
Jackson’s
final selection must be approved by the state Board of Technical
and Adult Education, whose members are appointed by the Governor
to oversee the operation of the agency.
Also named to
the committee were Jerry Cadle of the Cadle Law Firm in Swainsboro;
Chuck Ellington, Treutlen County school superintendent; Kenneth
Griffin, general manager for the Georgia Power Company in Swainsboro;
Pam Griner, chair of Swainsboro Tech Board of Directors; Wayne Herringdine,
president of the Bank of Wrightsville; Paula Herrington, director
of the Millen-Jenkins County Chamber of Commerce; Erma Jenkins,
the Emanuel County assistant school superintendent; and Courtney
Terwilliger, the director of EMS services at the Emanuel Medical
Center.
Dr. Richard
Thornton will continue to serve as interim president at Swainsboro
Tech until the new president is selected.
Swainsboro Tech
serves Candler, Emanuel, Jenkins, Johnson and Treutlen counties.
In addition to the main Swainsboro campus, the college also operates
the Jenkins County Center in Millen and the Treutlen County Workforce
Development Center in Soperton. A total of 1,280 students were enrolled
in credit classes during the college’s 2006 fiscal year. Another
867 students took non-credit classes during that year.
The Department
of Technical and Adult Education is the state agency responsible
for the governance of the 34 colleges that make up the Technical
College System of Georgia. The department also administers the state's
adult literacy programs and Georgia Quick Start, an economic development
program dedicated to workforce training.
