Fifteen applicants are vying to be the next director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
Shane Broadway currently holds the position, but he is planning to leave it for the Arkansas State University System's vice president of governmental relations job. Broadway, who makes $168,128 a year in the director's post, has led the department since February 2011.
The opening comes at a time when the 90th General Assembly has convened and begun budget discussions. It also follows President Barack Obama's State of the Union address, in which he prioritized higher education.
The Higher Education Department began advertising for the director's position in December, and Friday marked the last day the department accepted applications. A six-member search committee will sift through the applications and extend interviews to candidates this week.
The search committee includes four members of the state Higher Education Coordinating Board: Chairman Bob Crafton of Rogers, Sarah Argue of Little Rock, Ben Pickard of Searcy and Olin Cook of Russellville. Paul Beran, chancellor of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, and Jackie Elliott, president of North Arkansas College, a two-year community college in Harrison, are also part of the search committee.
The board is hoping to select a director by its Friday meeting at the Higher Education Department.
The department director supervises a staff of about 42. Job duties include developing and recommending to the governor and the state Legislature the operating, capital and personal services budgets for public two-year and four-year colleges and universities; administering statewide student financial aid programs and several federal and state grant programs; developing and revising the state master plan for higher education; and establishing the role and scope of each public college and university.
Under Arkansas Code Annotated 25-7-101, the board appoints a new department director "through a search and selection process that includes substantial input, review, and recommendation from the Presidents Council." The council is a group of college and university leaders from across the state.
The appointment of a Higher Education Department director is subject to confirmation by the governor, and the director will serve at the governor's pleasure, according to the law.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson's spokesman J.R. Davis said Saturday that the governor has been "in close contact" with the board.
"He just wants people from Arkansas to be considered for the position," Davis said. "But ultimately it's the decision of the higher ed board, and he will support them in that decision."
The applicants are:
• John Braune, an independent investor and general manager of real estate holdings with Little Rock-based JPPE LLC and former president, chief executive officer and owner of The Heritage Company, a marketing company in Sherwood.
• Sonia Cowen, the interim vice chancellor for academic and student affairs for the North Dakota University System in Bismarck, N.D.
• James "Jim" Hall, the executive director of community and government relations for Northwest Arkansas Community College in Bentonville.
• John Phillip "Phil" Halstead, the executive director of Partnership for a Connected Illinois/Broadband Illinois, a nonprofit that helps implement high-speed Internet in Illinois.
• Bernadette Hinkle, the assistant vice president for finance and business services at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, former chief financial officer of the University of Arkansas' Cooperative Extension Service and former associate vice president for finance at the UA System.
• Franklin Mink, the president of MAI LLC, which he describes on his resume as a business that "provides public health consulting services to research, academic health centers, universities, hospitals" and the federal government.
• Ronald Nykiel, the chairman and chief executive officer of a consulting firm called Avenues and former provost and vice president of academic affairs at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
• Brett Powell, the vice president for administrative services at Ouachita Baptist University and former associate vice chancellor for finance at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
• Elizabeth Yoakum Pulley, a Little Rock representative for John Brown University and former director of admissions and advising for post-master's programs at Regent University School of Education in Virginia Beach, Va.
• Victoria Queen, the president of Victory Trade School -- a school for disadvantaged, nontraditional students who can earn certificates in culinary arts and family sciences -- in Springfield, Mo., and former director of hospitality and major donor liaison for Lyon College.
• Carolyn Rhinehart, an English and social science teacher at Scranton High School and former Scranton School District interventionist and remediation instructor.
• Ray Shackelford, a campaign and educational consultant who had various roles at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida, most recently as vice president for institutional effectiveness and associate professor.
• Donald Simpson, the program director and associate professor of the Cytotechnology Program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
• Mary Thrash, the early childhood coordinator and supervising teacher at the Carroll County Learning Center.
• David Wright, the chief policy, planning and research officer for the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and former coordinator for honors student admissions at UALR.
The Higher Education Coordinating Board had not yet set interviews for possible candidates, Crafton said in an email Saturday.
"We hope to do that the first of [this] week," he added. "The time for submittals of applications went through Friday the 23rd to the close of the work day. Several applications came in at the last part of the day and we only received them later that day so we haven't had time to review them."
Board member Sherrel Johnson said she has high expectations for a new director because of Broadway. Broadway has always informed the board of "anything and everything" that will be published or communicated to the board before the members actually received a publication or correspondence, she said, adding that his response time is usually immediate.
"And Shane gets up before the chickens," she said. "It's not unusual to have an email from him before the sun comes up ensuring that Board members hear whatever it is from him first. So I'm spoiled and have extremely high expectations of the new Director when it comes to Board communications."
Metro on 01/25/2015