Following President Randy Lowry's announced transition to the role of Chancellor, a national search for Lipscomb University’s eighteenth chief executive is being led by the Board of Trustees and the Presidential Search Committee.
Update 8/5/2021: Search Completed
On Aug. 5, 2021, Lipscomb University announced the election of Dr. Candice McQueen as the 18th president and first female CEO of the 130-year-old faith-based institution. Read the full news story on Dr. McQueen's appointment.
Statement from the Board Chair
After 16 years as president of Lipscomb University, Randy Lowry announced in February to the Board of Trustees his plans to transition to the role of Chancellor. On behalf of our Board of Trustees, I want to thank Randy and Rhonda for their long service to Lipscomb and for their love for this institution. Lipscomb has a deep heritage that spans over 130 years and provides the solid foundation for its current strong position within the world of higher education. I am confident that God will guide us to the right person. Please join me and our community in continued prayer for the entire process of naming a new president.
David Solomon
Chair, Lipscomb University Board of Trustees
Presidential Search Committee
Mitch Edgeworth
The presidential search committee has been announced and has members representing broad sections of our community, including board members, alumni, faculty, staff and students. The presidential search committee is led by Mitch Edgeworth (‘95), who serves as vice chair of the Board of Trustees as well as on the board management, development and finance committees of the board.
Mitch graduated from Lipscomb with a Bachelor of Science degree and holds a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering degree from Georgia Tech as well as a Master of Business Administration from Duke University. Mitch has focused his career in the healthcare sector with over 23 years of extensive healthcare experience, serving in a variety of operational and strategic leadership roles and now serves as president of HCA Healthcare’s TriStar Division. In this role, Mitch oversees a network of 20 hospitals and multiple access points including free standing ERs, oncology centers, behavioral health centers, physician practices, urgent care centers, imaging centers and telemedicine across Tennessee, Southern Kentucky and Northwest Georgia.
Mitch and his wife, Kimberly (‘96), have four daughters and attend Otter Creek Church of Christ, where Mitch is an elder.
Search Firm
Lipscomb University will partner with CarterBaldwin Executive Search to lead the search for its next president. CarterBaldwin has led recent searches for Lipscomb and has extensive experience leading searches for presidential and C-suite positions at Christian universities nationwide. Leading the team at CarterBaldwin working on Lipscomb's presidential search are:
- Price Harding, chairman
- Andrea McDaniel Smith, partner
Confidential inquiries may be sent to LipscombPresident [at] carterbaldwin.com (subject: Lipscomb%20University%20Presidential%20Search) (LipscombPresident[at]carterbaldwin[dot]com).
LipscombPresident [at] carterbaldwin.com (subject: Lipscomb%20University%20Presidential%20Search) (Presidential Search
Nominations and Expressions of Interest)
Community Involvement
As the search process develops and proceeds, various opportunities will be available for members of the Lipscomb community to participate in and have their voice heard in this important process. The current opportunities planned for community input include, but are not limited to, the following areas.
- Search Committee: The presidential search committee has been announced and has members representing broad sections of our community, including board members, alumni, faculty, staff and students.
- Listening Sessions: Members of the Board of Trustees have met with select members of our community in small listening sessions similar to focus groups to hear their thoughts.
- Community Survey: The Lipscomb community has had the opportunity to participate in and provide input via a community survey regarding the qualities and characteristics desired in the next president as well as key priorities of the next administration. The overall results of these responses are described below in the word clouds.
Other community input opportunities will be considered and added as appropriate throughout the search process.
Search Process and Communication
We commit to provide you with updates regarding important matters on the search process. This website is one way we will provide updates. Please check back regularly to this site for updates and new information on the presidential search process.
Community Survey Responses
The community survey gathered input from over 1,100 faculty, staff, students, parents, alumni, donors and board members on these four questions:
- What three attributes do you believe are essential to the success of the Lipscomb University president?
- From your perspective, what are the three highest priorities in the new president’s administration?
- From your perspective, what are the top three challenges the new president will face?
- What are the most distinctive elements of Lipscomb’s culture that should be maintained?
The insights from these responses informed the content included in the leadership profile for the position. For each question, below is a word cloud representation of the most common responses for that question.*
*The word clouds below illustrate the words most commonly present in responses with larger font sizes. Words may have been paired with other words in the context of the replies. For example, the word "student" is in a large font size in the question about the top challenges because student is frequently paired with other words, such as student recruiting, student housing, student life, student experience, etc.
