Cossatot official backed for state Department of Higher Education director

Panel recommends college’s Markham

Maria Markham of Nashville, Ark., candidate for Director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.
Maria Markham of Nashville, Ark., candidate for Director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education.

A search committee on Tuesday recommended the hiring of a community college administrator as the next director of the state Department of Higher Education.

Maria Markham, 35, of Nashville is a step closer to moving from the vice chancellor for academic services at the University of Arkansas System's Cossatot Community College into the director's post at $165,000 per year. The matter will go to the 12-member Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board on Friday and is subject to input from presidents and chancellors of the state's colleges, universities and their systems, and to confirmation by Gov. Asa Hutchinson.

"Well, first of all, all three candidates were well-qualified," said coordinating board Chairman Bob Crafton of Rogers. "We had discussion with each and every one of them, took our time, and they really relayed to us their qualifications and so forth, so we feel like she is here. She's had tremendous experience along this line, and we just feel like she is the best candidate at this point in time."

Hutchinson said in a statement Tuesday that he was pleased with the recommendation.

"Dr. Markham is a dynamic leader dedicated to service in the field of higher education," he said. "The leadership she has shown as Vice Chancellor of Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas is recognized across the state, and Maria is more than qualified to lead the Arkansas Department of Higher Education as they seek to improve the quality and success of Arkansas's colleges and universities."

Earlier Tuesday, members of the Coordinating Board interviewed three finalists vying for the job, which will be vacated Friday by Brett Powell. The board was deciding among Markham; MacGregor Stephenson of Austin, Texas, former deputy chief of staff to former Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former assistant commissioner for workforce, academic affairs and research for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board; and John Townsend of Smyrna, Tenn., associate vice chancellor of workforce development for Tennessee's board of regents.

Markham -- an Athens, Ark., native -- was at bat first Tuesday and later said they had "a great conversation."

"I think we have a lot of ideas to share, and I think that we have a lot of common goals and interests," she said. "And I think that we all know the challenges that are ahead of us."

The state's higher-education institutions are undergoing a complete redesign of the way they are funded by the state. The revisions move the focus from enrollment to student success, and schools would be funded by their performance in moving students along to meet educational goals. A framework of the new model will go before the coordinating board Friday, too.

The new funding method also is only a part of the state's master plan -- called Closing the Gap -- which seeks to raise the percentage of adult Arkansans who have technical certificates, associate degrees and bachelor's degrees or higher to 60 percent by 2025.

Markham has worked with other administrators in the state to form strategies to carry out the master plan, and she had been on the periphery of a working group focused on the funding, she said.

A graduate of Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Markham worked at the school as a faculty member from 2003 to 2005. At that time, she made the move to the multicampus Cossatot, where she started as the director of the Career Pathways Initiative. The year after, she became the division chairman for public services.

Since 2010, she has served as vice chancellor. Markham earned a doctorate in business from Northcentral University in Prescott Valley, Ariz.

"Higher education is my calling in life," she said, adding she wants to make a difference at the state level.

"Arkansas is my home. Always has been. Probably always will be. And it's very personal to me. It's personal to me that we have a very solid higher education system and that we have what it takes to attract business and industry with good jobs and that we have the people ready to take those things on."

The two other candidates interviewed Tuesday with the committee in the afternoon.

Stephenson, 45, advised Texas' governor on higher education for about four years before a stint as associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at the Texas A&M University System. He then worked in several roles at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, including director for community colleges in Texas.

Stephenson graduated from Baylor University with a history degree and later earned a law degree -- from the University of Denver, according to his resume. He also has a doctorate in education administration from Texas A&M University.

He said the post casts a net that stretches statewide, which appealed to him.

"I think Arkansas in putting together the Closing the Gap plan has identified some of the most critical elements for building success for students and that, to me, is the most important thing," he said. "What can we do to help students succeed? What can we do to build upon the individual institutions' areas of expertise and the ways they already reach out to students and grow that? And so, to me, being able to be an advocate on the statewide level, being able to work with the institutions, with the faculty and their leadership, it's exciting."

Townsend, 65, worked on the Tennessee board of regents where his tasks included facilitating student advancement through pathways from high school through a university and balancing political and economic models. He also has worked on an initiative to ease student transfers from community colleges to four-year schools.

Townsend earned a social-sciences degree from what is now Texas State University and later earned a master's degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He earned a master's and a doctorate in adult education from the University of Arkansas.

His Arkansas ties -- his alma mater, his wife is from Arkadelphia, he has a daughter and grandchildren in Little Rock -- are part of what attracted him to the job, he said.

"But beyond that, they're talking about a process which is called performance-based funding that the Tennessee Higher Education Commission implemented about five years ago," he said. "We're in about our second iteration of it. And, so subsequently, it's a process of which I'm familiar."

When reached later Tuesday afternoon, Markham hadn't yet known the committee had recommended her for the job.

"Woo hoo," she said. "I am so honored to be selected. I am just more than excited to hit the ground running, roll up my sleeves and get to work."

If approved, she would start the job Aug. 8, she said. She would be the first director to come from a two-year school since Linda Beene's tenure from 2002 to 2007. Beene had worked at universities and had served as vice president of two University of Arkansas System community colleges.

Powell announced in late May that he planned to step down from his $168,128 post at the end of this month and to start as vice president for finance and administration at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, where he will earn $175,000 annually. Ann Clemmer, the Higher Education Department senior associate director for academic affairs, will be the interim director.

A Section on 07/27/2016

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