June 24, 2016
The summer continues
to be a busy time at Coastal Virginia’s premier private liberal arts college.
At the invitation of
Senator Mark Warner, I recently visited with Dr. Ernest Moniz, the 13th U.S.
Secretary of Energy, and Congressman Bobby Scott at the 2016 Virginia Energy
Policy Forum (VEPF) – sponsored by Senator Warner -- at the Hampton Convention
Center. VEPF provides an opportunity for energy and climate stakeholders in
industry, academia, and local government, as well as interested citizens, to
gather for educational panels and seminars that review major state, national
and international regulatory provisions, energy-security topics, and other
issues that will not only affect the Virginia economy but the way we diversify
our energy mix moving forward.
I then traveled to
Roanoke for the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. It
was nice to reconnect with numerous colleagues and friends like Virginia
Wesleyan Vice President-Emeritus Jim Bergdoll and Rev. Ned Alderman, Senior
Pastor at Epworth United Methodist Church and a 1984 graduate of Virginia
Wesleyan, during the conference. Annual Conference is also the time that the
Association of Educational Institutions meet to discuss apportionments to higher
education, church issues, and to elect officers for the Association of
Educational Institutions. It is an honor
to succeed my good friend and long-time colleague, retiring President Jennifer
Braaten, President of Ferrum College, as chair of AEI.
Meetings on campus
this week included time with Ginger Johnston Philbrick, who visited campus from
her home in White Stone, Virginia. Ginger’s father, Dr. Joseph S. Johnston, was
the first president of Virginia Wesleyan College in 1965. We enjoyed talking about
the College’s history and our future plans.
On Tuesday, June 21,
it was exciting to welcome former President Billy Greer, his wife Fann, and
Trustee Emerita Jane Batten to campus for a ceremonial signing of the last
piece of structural steel to be placed on the forthcoming Greer Environmental
Sciences Center. The new 40,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to open fall
2017, and will be a state-of-the-art facility for teaching and research. Read
more about our "beam signing" ceremony on the VWC website: http://www.vwc.edu/
Dr. David Black,
Counsel to the President, and I traveled to Charlottesville, VA, this week to
meet with Dr. Allan Stam, Dean of the Frank Batten School of Leadership and
Public Policy at the University of Virginia. While there we discussed
collaborative opportunities between the Batten School and Virginia Wesleyan.
In addition, our
campus was proud to host Reinvent Hampton Roads and the group’s new president
and CEO, Jim Spore, at VWC for a briefing and discussion session on the
Industry Cluster Analysis currently underway for the region. I was pleased to
welcome the group and provide an overview of the College as they began their
meeting. Reinvent Hampton Roads is a community leadership initiative focused on
generating high-paying, satisfying jobs to underpin a vibrant economy for the
region.
Finally,
congratulations are in order for Judy Tinsley who is retiring from VWC after 26
years as the Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs. A campus
wide celebration was held in her honor and many members of the VWC community
gathered to wish her well. Judy’s sons, Matt Conrad ’97 and Jon
Conrad ‘03, are alumni of Virginia Wesleyan.
I hope the summer is
going well for all of you.
