Atlanta — July 1, 2008

Dr. W. Michael Stoy, vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty at Gainesville State College in Gainesville, Ga., was named today as president of Middle Georgia College (MGC) in Cochran by the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia.

Stoy will assume his new post in August, according to University System of Georgia Chief Operating Officer Robert Watts. He replaces Dr. Richard J. Federinko, who resigned Dec. 31, 2007.

Stoy is a professor of biology at Gainesville State. He has served in his current administrative positions since 1999. From 1989 until 1999, he held various administrative and faculty positions at Darton College in Albany, Ga., including associate professor of biology and chair of the science/mathematics division and professor of biology. From 1978 to 1989, Stoy was first an assistant and then associate professor of biology at Bismarck State College, Bismarck, N.D.

In 2003, the University System of Georgia recognized Gainesville College with a Best Practices Award for identifying and promoting practices that help students pass the Regents Test with Stoy’s guidance. He is a charter member and executive-board member of both the Appalachian Studies Center and the Georgia Appalachian Center for Higher Education. On behalf of the latter organization, he developed and helped implement a scholarship program that has more than 15 post-secondary institutions providing more than $20,000 in scholarship funds to students annually.

When Gainesville State received the green light from the Board of Regents in 2005 to begin offering selected four-year degrees, Stoy led the team that determined the institution’s academic niche and plotted its future in serving the needs of Northeast Georgia.

Stoy holds a Ph.D. in entomology from North Dakota State University, Fargo, N.D. (1984), a master of arts in zoology from Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (1978), a bachelor’s degree in biology from Thomas More College, Covington, Ky. (1975), and an associate’s degree in biology and chemistry from Bismarck Junior College, Bismarck, N.D. (1973).

“Dr. Stoy has the depth of academic and administrative experience we were looking for,” said Regent W. Mansfield Jennings, who served as chair of the Special Regents’ Committee for the presidential search at Middle Georgia College. “Like the Board of Regents, he is committed to providing Georgians with access to higher education, but he knows that, once admitted, students also need strong support from their institution if they are to succeed academically. It’s a partnership.”

Watts termed Stoy “an excellent choice for the next president of Middle Georgia College.” He noted that Stoy “is ready to take his leadership skills to the next level.”

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