Here’s How the New President Of NWFSC Gets Selected:

Christopher Saul
August 12, 2024
10:50 pm
Crestview, DeFuniak Springs, Niceville, Schools and Education, South Walton

In Brief:

Northwest Florida State College has begun its search for a new president, focusing on external candidates after Interim President Cristie Kedroski declined to seek the position.
The search process is guided by the Myers McRae search firm and involves community input, with a goal to appoint a new president by January 2025.
Governor Ron DeSantis’s policy prevents interim presidents from seeking permanent roles, influenced by past incidents at Florida Atlantic University.

Inside a sparse room of the Walton Area Chamber of Commerce filled with metal stacking chairs, the search for a new president for Northwest Florida State College begins. The search begins after former president Devin Stephenson resigned the post to take the top spot at Florida Polytechnic University in Lakeland earlier this summer.

Now, the job to help Governor Ron DeSantis falls to the board of trustees for the college, Interim President Cristie Kedroski, The Myers McRae search firm and those who show up to town halls like the one hosted on Monday afternoon.

The search will likely focus on external candidates as one of the top personnel choices for the job, Kedroski, announced that she will not seek the top job at this time. She added that the State College hoped to have the position filled by January of 2025.

Sources with information about the search and knowledge of its workings say that Governor Ron DeSantis has made a rule that effectively bans interim presidents from seeking the permanent post of president after the situation at Florida Atlantic University that made headlines in 2023 in South Florida.

“the Board hires the president and reports out to the State Board of Education,” said Chris Stowers – the Executive Director of the NWFSC Foundation and Interim Director of Strategic Communications said in an email, “A Board may choose to use a search committee to assist in vetting candidates. Our board has chosen the committee approach and information on the NWFSC process is available at https://www.nwfsc.edu/presidential-search/. We will keep this updated throughout the search, so you can pull up to date info from there.”

Participants from the business community, Walton County School District and other stakeholders spoke to the search firm about the school’s perceived strengths (workforce programs, past leadership, affordable education as a way up the economic ladder) and weaknesses (tendancy to spread itself too thin over too much subject matter, need for vision, perceived indifference from some locals) as well as what they wanted to see in a new president.

Want to participate in the process yourself? The College has another opportunity coming up Tuesday, August 12, 2024 at Northwest Florida State College’s Niceville Campus at five in the evening at the Mattie Kelly Arts Center.

Those who can’t make it are encouraged to fill out this survey: http://nwfsc.edu/presidential-search/surveys