NASHVILLE -- Chattanooga State Community College's new president is expected to be Dr. Flora Tydings, the veteran head of Athens Technical College in Georgia, pending approval next week by the Tennessee Board of Regents.
TBR system Chancellor John Morgan said Friday in a news release that he will recommend Tydings to the Board of Regents at a specially called meeting Wednesday in Nashville.
"President Tydings has the critical experience leading an institution with a similar mission to Chattanooga State," Morgan said.
She has "demonstrated a clear understanding of the important role community colleges play in providing both career training for workforce development and helping students prepare for transfer to a university," he added.
Morgan predicted Tydings, who has led Athens Tech as its president for 12 years, "will provide a stabilizing influence for the campus while motivating its faculty and staff to continue moving forward with innovative programs."
Tydings would officially take over as the community college's president on July 13, replacing interim President Fannie Hewlett. Hewlett agreed to serve temporarily after longtime President Jim Catanzaro, 77, retired under fire in December after 24 years at the helm.
That came amid months of upheaval among faculty and a pending Regents' audit into Catanzaro's hiring of a woman he met while vacationing in Barbados and appointed to a newly created top position.
Tom Griscom, a Chattanooga regent who led the search committee that winnowed a list of 70 applicants down to four finalists, including Tydings, said he expects the full board to go along with the recommendation.
"I cannot think of one time that the recommendation that Chancellor Morgan made [on a president] has not been approved," Griscom said. "I truly expect it."
He noted that two other regents -- about a quarter of the voting members -- also served on the search committee. And Morgan typically sounds out regents individually before making a formal announcement.
During her tenure as president of Athens Tech, Tydings oversaw what Morgan's release called a "dramatic growth in enrollment and expansion of degree offerings, particularly in programs related to workforce development needs of the region."
The Northeast Georgia technical college has an estimated enrollment of 10,000, while Chattanooga State Community College has an estimated enrollment of 10,400.
Tydings helped raise more than $30 million in private gifts and public grants for Athens Tech and "significantly increased efforts" to support student success, faculty development and use of new technologies, the release states.
Georgia Trend magazine, in a 2012 article on the location of a Caterpillar plant to the Athens area, described the role of Tydings and Athens Technical College in the recruitment of the firm. She met with Caterpillar's prospect team several times, explaining what the college could do with regard to providing employee-training resources.
Before the facility opened, the college provided temporary office space for more than 50 Caterpillar employees, the article said.
Under Catanzaro, Chattanooga State played similar roles and jumped in with offers to set up programs to train employees for new companies or expanding ones in the Chattanooga area.
Griscom said Chattanooga State is unique among Tennessee's community colleges in that its operational structure incorporates a technical college with more traditional academic offerings.
Elsewhere in the state, community colleges and applied colleges of technology are separate.
Because of Tydings' experience with a technical college and her recognition of the need for Chattanooga State to help match technical students' training with employers' needs, she makes a good fit, Griscom said.
Georgia's Technical College system twice relied on Tydings to provide interim leadership when sitting presidents left Central Georgia Technical College and Sandersville Technical College.
Before coming to Athens Tech, Tydings served five years as vice president for academic affairs at Central Georgia Technical College and was director of curriculum and staff development at Georgia's Macon Technical Institute. She also directed apprenticeship programs at several secondary school systems in the state.
Tydings earned her doctor of education degree in occupational studies at the University of Georgia. She got her master's of education degree as a reading specialist from Mercer University and her bachelor's degree in behavioral science from Georgia Southern University.
A member of multiple professional and civic organizations, Tydings has been honored by the Boy Scouts of Northeast Georgia with the 2014 Distinguished Citizen Award.
The Atlanta Business Chronicle has included her among Recognized Leaders in Education every year since 2009.
Contact staff writer Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550.