Don Gaetz being discussed for UWF president

Ever since Dr. Judy Bense announced her decision to retire at the end of this year, people have speculated whether State Sen. Don Gaetz would be interested in the post.

On December 10, 2015, the Board of Trustees Chair Lewis Bear, Jr. named a Presidential Search Committee to assume the task of searching for a dynamic and competent individual to assume the leadership of the University of West Florida. Chairman Bear appointed Mort O’Sullivan to chair the 20-member committee:

Mort O’Sullivan
C. Wayne Ansley
Kenneth “KC” Clark
Jason Crawford
Dr. Pamela Dana
Dan Doyle Jr.
Dr. Athena du Pre’
Dr. Rick Harper
Clay Ingram
Dr. Steven J. Kass
Dr. Scott Keller
Dr. Eric Kollar
J. Collier Merrill
Jay S. Patel
Steve Riggs
Bentina C. Terry
Christopher Thrasher
Garrett Walton
Dr. Pat Wentz
Dr. P.C. Wu

Greenwood/Asher & Associates, Inc. has been selected to be the university’s search consultant. According to the UWF Search page, Greenwood/Asher is one of the nation’s and Florida’s leading executive search firms for higher education.

This morning, Politico Florida mention that Gaetz’s name was being floating for the presidency.

Gaetz said that people have encouraged him to apply, but he has not applied for the post or asked any to support him for it. Florida Politico did interview several Search Committee members would were positive about the possibility of the retiring state senator leading the UWF.

Read Gaetz.

Share:

Author: Rick Outzen

Rick Outzen is the publisher/owner of Pensacola Inweekly. He has been profiled in The New York Times and featured in several True Crime documentaries. Rick also is the author of the award-winning Walker Holmes thrillers. His latest nonfiction book is “Right Idea, Right Time: The Fight for Pensacola’s Maritime Park.”