Atlanta — November 30, 2007

Dr. John O. Schwenn, vice president for academic affairs at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kan., was named today as president of Dalton State College (DSC) in Dalton, by the Board of Regents.

Schwenn is expected to assume his new post in March 2008.

Regent James R. Jolly served as chair of the Special Regents’ Committee charged with interviewing the presidential finalists submitted by the campus-based Presidential Search and Advisory Committee and making a recommendation to the chancellor and full Board of Regents for final approval.

“Dr. Schwenn is student focused and a consensus builder,” Jolly said. “He strongly believes in collaboration and the power of partnerships. He has the ability to move Dalton State forward and is sure to be an asset to the University System of Georgia.”

“In addition to excellent academic credentials, Dr. Schwenn has had experience serving as the interim president of Emporia State, and he understands the complexity of a college president’s role,” said University System of Georgia Chief Operating Officer Rob Watts, to whom the University System’s state college and two-year college presidents report. “I am confident that his strengths mesh well with Dalton State’s needs.”

Schwenn has been vice president for academic affairs at Emporia State University (ESU) – an institution with approximately 6,500 students, nearly 2,000 of them in graduate programs – since 1997. In addition to the development of the university’s online courses and degree programs, as vice president, he has focused on increasing faculty diversity, developing and implementing ESU’s strategic plan, increasing ESU’s exchange agreements with other universities around the world, and representing both the campus and the Kansas Board of Regents before the state legislature and in the community.

In 2006, Schwenn was tapped to serve as the university’s interim president for five months, during which time he advocated for the repair and rehabilitation of academic buildings across the system and was actively involved in fund raising.

Schwenn has been affiliated with Emporia State since 1989, when he was hired as an associate professor and associate chair of the Division of Psychology and Special Education in the Teachers College. Within three years, he was appointed department chair, then, in 1994, associate vice president for academic affairs and dean of graduate studies and research. Three years later, Schwenn was appointed to his current position, in which he has provided leadership to the university’s faculty in all disciplines.

Before his arrival at Emporia State, Schwenn taught at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., from 1976 to 1989.

Since 2003, Schwenn has been a member of the Board of Trustees for Flint Hills Technical College, also located in Emporia, and he has been active in two consortia composed of community colleges, technical colleges and two universities all working to improve the economic climate of the surrounding region and state.

Throughout his career, Schwenn has published numerous papers, book chapters and books on teaching and learning and made dozens of state, regional and national presentations. He also secured many grants while at Delta State and Emporia State.

Schwenn holds a Ph.D. (1976) and a master of science degree (1973), both in rehabilitation and special education and both earned at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also holds a bachelor of science degree in psychology (1971) from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. In 2005, the latter institution presented him with the Maurice O. Graff Distinguished Alumni Award.

Schwenn and his wife, Judy, have three grown children, a granddaughter and a grandson due in mid-December.

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