Lee University’s president search: the process and people involved
CLEVELAND, Tenn. – In March 2024, Dr. Mark Walker announced that he would not accept another four year term as the president of Lee University. After the Spring 2024 Commencement, Dr. Paul Conn returned to serve as president and chancellor for the 2024-2025 academic year. As Conn’s presidency comes to end, the Lee University Board of Directors promise a new president will be selected by Summer 2025.
The new candidate will be selected based on guidelines from the extensive Position Specifications document of requirements and details created by the Board and FaithSearch Partners.
Faculty Updates
President Conn regularly updates faculty on the presidential search progress. The search is being done by FaithSearch Partners.
According to Andrew Westmoreland, Senior Vice President of FaithSearch Partners, the organization focuses on “serving the needs of faith-related institutions and causes. In addition to working with higher education, we support leadership searches for healthcare, faith-based nonprofits, and K-12 schools.”
In December 2024, representatives of FaithSearch Partners visited Lee to conduct research and determine what qualities the future president of Lee would need.
“We visited the campus to conduct interviews with a wide range of friends of Lee, including faculty, staff, students, alumni, trustees, and members of the Cleveland community. Based on what we heard we prepared a report for the search committee and a draft of the position profile,” Westmoreland said. “We then worked with the search committee to edit the position profile so that it was an accurate representation of the hopes of the community for the new president. That document is our touchstone for the search.”
While FaithSearch Partners help create and widen the pool of potential candidates, the firm is not involved with selecting our new president.
Wade Lombard, the chairman of the board said, “this search team take[s] a big wide net process and narrows it down, so the entire board, which is 24 members, [are] not all sliding through all this information. We can bring to them a short list of recommendations based on all of our work.”
The Search Committee consists of faculty members and alumni from the board. They were appointed by Lombard and will interview candidates once applications close on March 1st.
“The Search Committee from the board is focused on trying to ensure that the process, start to finish, is handled properly and that we're bringing the right recommendation to the full board,” Lombard said.
After all interviews have been conducted, the Search Committee will offer recommendation to the board. Recommendations from the Search Committee could be for one candidate or more candidates. However, the board is not required to choose any of these recommendations.
“The board knows this is the most important decision they'll ever make. It's often said boards only have to make one really good decision, and then everything else positive flows from it.” Conn said. “If they make a bad decision, they spend a lot of time cleaning up after that bad decision.”
With over 30 years of experience and influence, many people wonder what Conn’s role is in the presidential search or if he has a choice in who the next president will be.“I do not have an heir waiting in the wings. I don't have someone I've groomed for this. I don't even have a favorite,” Conn said. “I’m curious about it like everybody else, but I trust the board and I'm going to stay out of it.”
After the next president is selected, Conn will solely resume his role as chancellor.
For more information about the presidential search, visit “Presidential Search” on Lee’s website to read the Position Specifications document. For more information about FaithSearch Partners, visit their website.
