TBR Chancellor recommends Dr. Jeff McCord as next president of Northeast State Community College

Published 9:10 am Thursday, August 4, 2022

NASHVILLE — After a national search and campus forums with four finalists, Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor Flora W. Tydings is recommending Dr. Jeff McCord for appointment as the next president of Northeast State Community College. The Board of Regents will convene a special called meeting Monday, Aug. 8, to consider acting on the appointment.

Dr. McCord is currently commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Prior to his appointment as commissioner in January 2019, he served for seven years as Northeast State’s vice president for economic and workforce development, following a 16-year career in leadership at Eastman Chemical Company in Kingsport.

He earned a Doctor of Education in Learning & Leadership at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; a Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Information Systems at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, and a Bachelor of Science in Management from the Georgia Institute of Technology. His full resumé is posted on the TBR website at https://www.tbr.edu/hr/executivesearches/president-northeast-state-community-college.

The Board of Regents, which governs Tennessee public community and technical colleges, will review and consider acting on the chancellor’s recommendation in a special called meeting scheduled for 9:30 a.m. CT/10:30 a.m. ET on Monday, Aug. 8. The board will meet virtually via Microsoft Teams, and the meeting will be live-streamed and archived on the TBR website at https://www.tbr.edu/board/august-8-2022-special-called-board-meeting.

If the board approves the chancellor’s recommendation, the appointment would be effective Oct. 1, 2022.

Also on the board’s agenda for the Aug. 8 meeting are review and consideration of the criteria for the next president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) Athens. TCAT Athens President Stewart Smith is retiring later this year after 21 years as the college’s top leader and 30 years of overall service.

McCord was one of four finalists for the Northeast presidency recommended in late June by a 17-member search advisory committee, chaired by Regent Miles Burdine of Kingsport and which also included two other members of the Board of Regents, representatives of the college’s students, faculty, staff and alumni, and civic and business leaders from the Northeast Tennessee area. The finalists participated in campus visits and open forums with campus groups and the public July 11-14.

After the forums, Dr. Tydings reviewed input from the campus community and the public and conducted further interviews with each of the finalists before deciding on a single recommendation to the board for its consideration.

“Dr. McCord was the top choice of the search committee and has a wide breadth of experience that I believe will help Northeast State continue to perform its missions to our students and the people of the broader region it serves,” Tydings said. “I particularly want to thank members of the search committee for their considerable time, diligence and hard work that a search requires, and for their dedication and devotion to the college.”

Persons who want to request to address the Board may follow the process authorized by TBR Policy 1.02.12.00 – Requests to Address the Board. For more information, contact Board Secretary Mariah Perry at mariah.perry@tbr.edu or 615-366-3927.