Also in this edition, Diverse contributing editor Lydia Lum talks to a former health care executive, two lawyers and two accountants about the unconventional paths they took to become college presidents. University boards of trustees and presidential search committees are seeking out nonacademics with executive management experience to manage multimillion dollar budgets, lobby legislators and take their institutions to the next level.
While management experience is valued, you’ll read in “Under New Management” that credentials still matter, especially when leading a community of academics. Before taking the helm at Texas Southern University, John Rudley managed the finances for TSU and served as the University of Houston’s vice president for administration and finance. It didn’t seem to matter to faculty. “I got sick of them assuming the quality of information I had wasn’t worth listening to,” says Rudley, who decided to earn an Ed.D. Now, Rudley says, “everyone relaxes when I come into the room because now I’m one of them, as they see it.”
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