NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Board of Regents on Wednesday unanimously approved Ty A. Stone as the new president of Cleveland State Community College.
Stone, who has been serving as president of Jefferson Community College in Watertown, New York, succeeds Cleveland State President Bill Seymour, who is retiring June 30. Stone's first official day on the job will be July 1.
Stone was selected from among four finalists for the position at Cleveland State, which has some 3,500 credit students and 1,500 noncredit students. Officials began with an original pool of 66 applicants. Finalists visited Cleveland State and met with the campus community as well as local government and civic and business leaders.
"I was moved by the commitment and the engagement of everyone who served on this committee," Stone told regents following the vote. "It just validated for me that Cleveland State is a very special place and definitely someplace that I want to be. So I want to thank the chancellor and the regents for having the confidence in me to be able to step into the big shoes that I have to step into and to do the great work that Cleveland has to do in the community."
Stone earned her doctorate in organization and management at Capella University and her master's in business administration with a concentration in organizational strategy at Trinity University. She received her bachelor's degree in business administration at Washington Adventist University.
A U.S. Air Force veteran, Stone has been named twice to the City & State New York Higher Education Power 100 list of higher education leaders, public officials and philanthropists.
She has been president of Jefferson Community College since 2017. Stone previously served in leadership roles at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, from 2010-17, including as vice president for strategic initiatives and vice president for business operations.
Stone also has had experience in business and served as an air traffic controller in the U.S. Air Force.
"I don't think there could be any better qualifications for being a president than to have been an air traffic controller," quipped Board of Regents Chancellor Flora Tydings, a former Chattanooga State president, to regents. "Madame Chair, I highly recommend to you Dr. Stone."
Regent Thomas White, who headed up the system's search committee, told colleagues that the recruitment involved a number of people not only from Cleveland State but the Cleveland community.
"And golly, you really see the passion that those folks have with the school and making sure we're making an excellent decision," White said. "I have no doubt that we are here."
Regents also approved Alisha Fox as the regents system's new vice chancellor of business and finance. Fox has been vice president of finance and chief operations officer at Cleveland State Community College since 2018. She earlier served as the college's interim vice president and assistant vice president of finance and operations, director of fiscal services and director of purchasing and contracts.
In another move, regents approved David J. Hicks as next president of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in Elizabethton.
"We are thrilled to have each of these three join our system," Tydings later said in a statement. "The new presidents appointed today will have big shoes to fill, but I'm confident that Dr. Hicks and Dr. Stone will lead their campuses toward even greater student success and with a focus on serving their communities."
She said Fox has the knowledge and experience to be a great chief financial officer for the system.
The Board of Regents system oversees 13 community colleges and 27 Tennessee Colleges of Applied Technology.
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow him on Twitter @AndySher1.