By Our Correspondent /Sanford/
[dropcap]D[/dropcap]r. Ann McGee, the President of Seminole State College of Florida, has been selected to receive the Chief Executive Leadership Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District III, which represents nine Southeastern states. The award will be presented during the CASE District III Conference on 16 February 2016 in Nashville, Tennessee.
During McGee’s tenure at Seminole State, the College has grown from a single campus to a comprehensive college with four campuses and six sites with 30,000 students to become the eighth largest of the 28 institutions in the Florida College System. She is also a founding architect of the DirectConnect to UCF program, which has become a national model for state colleges and universities and allowed more than 4,500 students from Seminole State College to earn their degrees from UCF. Fundraising has also seen tremendous growth under McGee, with the Foundation for Seminole State College, growing from $1 million in assets to more than $21 million.
Under McGee’s leadership, Seminole State also has been recognized nationally as a model K-12 partnership with Seminole County Public Schools, helping to increase college readiness by reducing the need for English, reading and math remediation. McGee also initiated new baccalaureate programs to meet the needs of area businesses and secured major funding for on-campus developments, including the Wayne M. Densch Partnership Center, the science building expansion and the CFADA Professional Automotive Training Center.
“Ann is a dynamic leader and a tireless advocate for higher education. Her impact at Seminole State has been transformational and [she has] really positioned the college well for the future,” said Kris Phillips, CASE District III chair.
McGee is only the second community college leader to win the award. McGee will celebrate her 20th anniversary at Seminole State in February 2016, and is only the second president in the College’s 50-year history.
Established in 1999, this prestigious award recognizes the chief executive of a District III member institution for outstanding leadership and service in support of education. It is an opportunity for CASE to applaud and promote the creative and difficult work of our top educational executives. CASE invites nominations of chief executives whose contributions to their campuses and communities deserve exceptional recognition and celebration.
