Northland Pioneer College is moving ahead with its efforts to seek a college president to replace Dr. Jeanne Swarthout, who will retire next July.
During the June 20 meeting of the Navajo County Community College District Governing Board, NPC Chief Operations Officer Jason Foutz reported that three responses were received for a search firm to assist with the endeavor, two Arizona companies and one from North Carolina.
“Of all the firms that came through on it, R.H. Perry & Associates, the firm from North Carolina, is the one that stood out as a phenomenal firm just from the proposal that they provided,” stated Foutz. He said that R.H. Perry & Associates was the only firm that listed experience conducting searches specifically for college presidents, adding that the other two firms were geared toward corporate leadership searches.
“It seems like a fairly high dollar amount, but for what they can do for us and accomplish for us, I think it’s very reasonable. It would also help us keep under the budget that the board has set for this process,” said Foutz.
After reviewing the information presented, the board approved the recommendation for the presidential search firm in an amount not to exceed $64,400.
Following that decision the board also approved the appointment of a presidential transition team. “This is not a requirement of a good presidential search, but I think it would lead the search into a more effective phase once a president has been identified for the position,” stated Swarthout.
She explained that by Sept. 15 she would like to appoint a team of five to seven people to “begin to discuss how to bring a president into the culture and processes of the institution.” After brief consideration, the board gave its approval for Swarthout to move forward with the formation of a transition team.
The board then approved a list of individuals who have volunteered to be part of a presidential search committee. This committee would review those applicants vetted by the firm R.H. Perry & Associates.
Those on the list include, Matt Weber, Northern Arizona Vocational Institute of Technology (NAVIT) superintendent; Hollis Merrell, Snowflake School District superintendent; Bill Jeffers, former board member and Holbrook resident; Wes King, NPC faculty in Welding; Allison Landy, department chair of Early Childhood Development; Peterson Yazzie, NPC faculty in Art; Jeanmarie Nielson, NPC’s Silver Creek Campus facilities coordinator; Amber Hill, NPC controller; Cara Joe-Dukepoo, NPC’s Hopi Center manager; Gail Campbell, NPC administrator; and public volunteers Jane Hawthorne and Kelley Harvey Brannon. There is one more slot for an NPC student that has yet to be named.
