New presidents
Terri A. Graham is now campus president for Indian River State College‘s Mueller Campus. She comes to the college from another Florida college, Valencia College, where since 2016 she has served as executive dean. In 2020, Graham was named interim campus president for the college’s West and Downtown campuses, adding roles as chief academic and operating officer for the two sites.
Before joining Valencia College, Graham was dean of the School of Academic Foundations at Seminole State College in Florida. Prior to that, she was director of program development for workforce degree and certificate programs at Florida State College in Jacksonville. Throughout her 28-year career, Graham has served in both education and administration. Early in her career she taught at the elementary and middle school levels.
Ray Martinez III will serve as president and CEO of the Texas Association of Community Colleges, effective August 22. He has served as deputy commissioner for academic affairs and workforce education at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, president of the Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas, chancellor of Western Governors University Texas, and he has held senior government affairs positions at Rice University and Texas A&M International University. In addition, Martinez previously served as director of the Committee on Higher Education in the Texas Senate.
Martinez also has experience at the federal level, having served in the Clinton administration as regional director for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and on the White House staff as deputy assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs. In the George W. Bush administration, he served as a commissioner on the U.S. Election Assistance Commission.
Kudos
Daria J. Willis, president of Howard Community College, was named to The Daily Record’s 2022 listing of influential Marylanders. The newspaper editors selected honorees for their significant contributions to their respective fields and for their leadership in the state.
“The 2022 Influential Marylanders are, quite simply, inspirational. Their hard work and dedication to their fields have changed the landscape of Maryland through their extraordinary efforts,” said Suzanne Fischer-Huettner, senior group publisher of The Daily Record. “They make a difference in communities throughout the state every day.”
Appointments
Jeremy Bennett has been named Guilford Technical Community College’s new associate vice president of instruction. For the past five years, he has served as the academic dean for human services and public safety at the North Carolina college.
Florida’s Tallahassee Community College (TCC) has announced three new associate deans: Ross Brooks is now associate dean of science and mathematics; Ken Tellis is associate dean of student success in healthcare professions; and Marty Walker is associate dean of healthcare professions.
Brooks has been a full-time faculty member at TCC for 11 years, serving as the mathematics department’s lead faculty and program chair for four years. Tellis joined the college in 2017 as a full-time instructor after serving as an adjunct instructor since 2004. Walker previously served for 12 years at Northwest Florida State College as a professor and director of nursing programs.
