Atlanta — November 14, 2006

University System of Georgia Chief of Staff Rob Watts announced today that he has appointed Dr. Gary Allen McGaha Sr., currently vice president for academic affairs at Atlanta Metropolitan College (AMC), to serve as the college’s interim president.

McGaha’s appointment, effective Jan. 1, 2007, comes as AMC President Harold E. Wade retires after 12 years of leadership at Atlanta Metropolitan and 42 years in higher education. McGaha will serve as interim president until a national search concludes with the appointment of a permanent president for Atlanta Metropolitan College.

McGaha was named to his current position in mid August of this year, but his association with AMC dates back to 1993, when he was appointed as a professor and chair of the Social Sciences Division. In 1996, he also became the site coordinator for the Post-Secondary Readiness Enrichment Program (PREP) for metropolitan Atlanta. In this capacity he coordinated PREP for Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Georgia Perimeter and Atlanta Metropolitan. Before his appointment as vice president for academic affairs at AMC, McGaha served as dean of academic services for the Dunwoody campus of Georgia Perimeter College (2002-2005).

Prior to his arrival at Atlanta Metro, McGaha served as assistant to the president and assistant professor of community health and preventive medicine at the Morehouse School of Medicine from 1983 to 1993. Before this, McGaha’s administrative experience in higher education was at Kentucky State University in Frankfort, Ky., where he served as associate vice president for academic affairs from 1980 to 1983, chair of the Department of History and Political Science from 1977 to 1979, and administrative assistant to the president and assistant professor of political science from 1976 to 1980.

“We are very fortunate to have a well-qualified person with Gary McGaha’s experience and mastery of AMC available to step into the interim president’s role,” Watts said. “I know he will do an excellent job of guiding Atlanta Metropolitan College during this transition in leadership.”

McGaha obtained a doctor of philosophy degree at the University of Mississippi in 1976, a masters degree from Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, in 1973, and a bachelor’s degree from Mississippi Valley State University in 1972. All of these degrees were in political science.

Plans regarding the national search for a permanent presidential appointee will be forthcoming in the near future.

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