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LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — An executive for an Indianapolis-based nonprofit educational advocacy group has been named executive director of Nebraska's Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education.
Michael Baumgartner will take over leadership of the state agency this coming fall. Baumgartner was offered the job after interviews and after the three other finalists dropped out of the running.
Baumgartner will succeed Marshall Hill, who left the post to become executive director of the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreements, a group that helps states establish comparable national standards for postsecondary distance-education courses and programs.
The Nebraska commission is responsible for developing higher education policy and approving financial aid and building projects.
Baumgartner is chief financial officer of Complete College America, a national nonprofit that works with states to increase the number of Americans with career certificates or college degrees. Before joining Complete College America in 2011, Baumgartner was executive deputy director at the Illinois Board of Higher Education.
Among the three finalists who dropped out was James Purcell, the former commissioner and adviser to the Louisiana Board of Regents, who accepted another position within higher education. T.J. Arant, former president of Friends University in Kansas, withdrew from consideration. A few days before interviews scheduled last week, Jack Geller, dean of the College of Social Sciences, Mathematics and Education at the University of Tampa, also withdrew.
Commission member Eric Seacrest told the Lincoln Journal Star (http://bit.ly/1jLWE0R ) that it was unusual for so many finalists to drop out of the running, but he also said all three were highly sought-after educators or administrators.
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Information from: Lincoln Journal Star, http://www.journalstar.com
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