Last week, Dr. Brendan Kelly officially began his appointment as only the third president of the Arkansas State University System. Dr. Kelly has a Pensacola connection.
- From 2013 to 2017, he was vice president of university advancement and president of the UWF Foundation, Inc., at the University of West Florida, where he led a successful $50 million capital campaign.
- When I hosted WCOA’s “Pensacola Speaks,” Dr. Kelly was a regular guest. He helped elevate the UWF Historic Trust.
HIS RISE: Dr. Kelly was chancellor at the University of South Carolina Upstate in Spartanburg and Greenville from 2017-2020 and was appointed as interim president of the University of South Carolina in 2019. Since 2020, before being hired by the ASU System Board of Trustees, he has served as president of the University of West Georgia.
- The University of West Georgia was a member of the Gulf South Conference, the same as UWF. During Dr. Kelly’s tenure, UWG moved out of Division II to Division I Atlantic Sun Conference.
DIG DEEPER Dr. Kelly succeeded interim president Dr. Robin Myers and the second system president, Dr. Chuck Welch, who leftSystemystem in January after nearly 13 years to become president and CEO of the American Association of State Colleges & Universities (AASCU) in Washington, D.C.
Dr. Kelly said the ASU System role appealed to him “because it represents one of a handful of roles in the United States in which one has the ability to influence and shape higher education throughout an entire state. I am grateful to each member of the ASU Board of Trustees for their faith in me to offer leadership to a university system that has the capacity to provide access to high quality, higher education to the vast majority of Arkansans and many more beyond the state borders. This is an opportunity to support the economic evolution of the state at large.”
The Arkansas State University System, based in Little Rock, serves more than 35,000 students annually on campuses in Arkansas and Queretaro, Mexico, and globally online.
- The System includes Arkansas State University, a four-year Carnegie R2 research institution in Jonesboro with degree centers at ASU-Beebe, ASU-Mountain Home and ASU Mid-South in West Memphis. Arkansas State University Campus Queretaro opened in September 2017.
- The System’s two-year college institutions include ASU-Beebe, with additional campuses in Heber Springs and Searcy and an instructional site at Little Rock Air Force Base; ASU-Newport, with additional campuses in Jonesboro and Marked Tree; ASU-Mountain Home; ASU Mid-South in West Memphis; and ASU Three Rivers in Malvern. Henderson State University in Arkadelphia became the System’s second four-year institution member in February 2021.