Amarillo College announces 2 presidential semifinalists
Amarillo College (AC) announced two presidential semifinalists during its Thursday evening special board meeting.
As stated in the board meeting, Gold Hill Associates search firm, in partnership with AC's Presidential Search Advisory Committee, presented the AC Board of Regents with six presidential candidates. During the Thursday afternoon special meeting, the board went into closed session to deliberate on the six candidates and determined Dr. Andrew W. Bowne, Ed.D. and Dr. Laura Boyer, Ed.D. as the two semifinalists.
"Their education, their experience and their passion for student success is what shone through in the interviews. They are obviously both visionaries who work well with collaborative teams, and we were obviously very impressed with them," Paul Proffer, AC regent and chairman of the AC search committee, said.
"Both have very different but evidently effective styles. Their interest in data to show outcomes, as well as their love for students, is something that we saw and gravitated towards when we interviewed them. I believe that either one of the two would be excellent for Amarillo College, and would help to take the college even farther than we have come," Proffer added.
AC said Dr. Bowne served as president and CEO of Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, a regional community college serving approximately 44,000 credit and non-credit students from 2020 to 2024. Previously, he served as senior vice president and CEO at Ivy Tech Community College in Indianapolis, Ind., from 2012 to 2020 and was associate vice president for college advancement/executive director at Grand Rapids Community College (Mich.) from 2005 to 2012.
Dr. Bowne earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in educational leadership in 1989 and 1999, respectively, from Western Michigan University. Dr. Browne was also chosen to attend the Aspen Institute’s Aspen New Presidents Fellowship in 2022-23, and the Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship in 2017-18.
Dr. Boyer is vice president for academic success at Northeast Lakeview College, a member of the Alamo Community College District that serves the Greater San Antonio metropolitan area. Prior to joining Northeast Lakeview College, Dr. Boyer was the dean of institutional research, effectiveness, and strategic planning at South Texas College, where she also served as associate dean for curriculum and student learning, and accreditation liaison.
Among her various leadership-development activities, she attended the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Institute for Higher Educational Management in 2023 and the American Association of Community Colleges Future Presidents Institute in 2022.
Dr. Boyer earned a doctor of education degree in educational leadership in 2016 from Lamar University, a master of education in adult education from Texas A&M University — Kingsville in 2004, and a bachelor’s degree in music and psychology from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, in 1994. Should the college determine Dr. Boyer as their finalist, she would be AC's first female president.
"The committee, through the entire process, put in hours and hours of studying these applicants, participating in the interviews and providing honest opinions on who they think would be best for Amarillo College. It was tough, because all of the applicants that we were given were very talented and successful, each equally impressive, but in the end, we found two that really stood out," said Proffer.
As stated previously by the Globe-News, the search followed the departure of Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart last September, after he accepted the position of ninth Chancellor for the Austin Community College District. AC then announced Denese Skinner as interim president and began seeking a search firm for the presidential position in October. By December 2023, the college announced Gold Hill Associates as its search firm finalist, where they began creating marketing materials for the position.
In February of this year, the AC Presidential Search Advisory Committee, comprising 20 individuals including AC regents, faculty, staff, students, and community members, met for the first time to discuss applicant qualifications. On March 1, Gold Hill presented 14 of the total 25 applications to the AC committee, where they then hosted Zoom interviews and a questionnaire to determine six applicants to present to the board, where they then deliberated and chose the two semifinalists Thursday evening.
Following this announcement, the two semifinalists will be invited to the college April 16-18 to view the campus, visit with faculty and administration, as well as participate in a public forum. Following the campus visits, a sole finalist is tentatively planned to be announced in the following board meeting.
For more information about AC, visit them online at https://www.actx.edu/
This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo College names two presidential semifinalists after meeting
