Miller to start job as BRCC head next week
New Baton Rouge Community College Chancellor Andrea Lewis Miller is taking over the job next week after interim Chancellor Jim Horton wraps up his duties on Friday.
Miller, who is moving from her job heading SOWELA Technical Community College in Lake Charles, said Wednesday that she is “extremely excited” about the new opportunity, even if leaving her current position feels “bittersweet.”
Miller also is already making waves on campus.
She said she just decided to put on hold job searches for two vice chancellor positions over academic affairs and student affairs in order to better assess the options for the openings. The candidates were notified this week of the decision.
After being selected as the new BRCC chancellor in December, Miller said she has spent two or three days a week in Baton Rouge for the past month.
“There’s still a lot to learn and a lot of people to meet,” Miller said. “I’m still in the learning process. I’m finding the community is extremely supportive of BRCC.”
Miller will receive a $198,500 pay package, which includes $27,500 in housing, vehicle and supplemental expense allowances.
Former BRCC Chancellor Myrtle Dorsey had a pay package of more than $208,000 annually. In July, interim Horton moved to Baton Rouge from Arizona to take over the job from Dorsey, who left BRCC to become chancellor of St. Louis Community College. Horton vowed not to seek the job beyond the interim.
Miller credited Horton with easing the transition process for her.
As the interim chancellor, Horton worked to streamline BRCC’s financial aid and admissions operations. Horton has also focused on the growth of land-locked BRCC through a planned transportation and automotive training satellite campus in the Smiley Heights area of Baton Rouge.
The 200 acres of Smiley Heights property is northeast of BRCC near Florida Boulevard, in a neighborhood bounded by Greenwell Springs Road and roughly between North Ardenwood Drive and North Lobdell Boulevard.
Horton said Wednesday that he feels he has helped “give people a sense of empowerment” on campus.
Horton, who is retiring to Arizona, said he is pleased that BRCC now has an instructional division for technology that will help with industrial and economic development. He also cited the growth of BRCC’s new aviation program as a point of pride.
Miller, a cellular biologist by academic training, taught for years at her alma mater, the small Lemoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Tenn. She headed the college’s faculty senate and then was promoted into the college administration.
Miller first started working at community colleges in 1998 when she moved to Shelby State Community College in Memphis and then Southwest Tennessee Community College, before taking over at SOWELA in 2007.
On Wednesday, the Louisiana Community and Technical College System Board of Supervisors appointed Michael Anthony Elam as the interim SOWELA chancellor. Elam, who previously served as president of the College of the Mainland in Galveston County, Texas, could serve in the position through June. But he agreed not to apply for the position beyond the interim.