The University of West Florida Board of Trustees has selected Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz Jr. as the university’s interim president by an 8-2 vote, effective July 14.
Board Chair Rebecca Matthews modified the Special Meeting’s agenda on Memorial Day to change an information item to make Diaz the interim president. Read 2025.05.27—Special-Board-Meeting-Agenda 2025.05.27—Special-Board-Meeting-Agenda (2).
Matthews read into the record a written statement touting Diaz’s record. She also mentioned working with the Commissioner while serving on the Florida Education Foundation.
“Commissioner Diaz is high energy,” said Matthews. “He’s a tireless leader and an advocate with endless ideas to brainstorm. His vision has foresight. Strong ability to implement has been proven time and again and uniquely. He does all of this with balance and a steady hand.”
She continued, “I offer my confidence and support of Manna Diaz Junior to serve as interim UWF President.”
Trustee Ashley Ross also read a prepared statement. “I’m honored to speak today in support of Commissioner Diaz; he brings not only decades of academic leadership, but also many years of legislative leadership in both the Florida House and Senate. He is a father, first husband, second loving son, friend, and faithful servant leader. He is a man of strong integrity and has the value set needed to be interim president that UWF needs.”
Trustee Rachel Moya read her statement, too. “I think that Commissioner Diaz is extremely well suited, given his connections to other presidents in the university system, in the college system, to expound upon those and expand those as well as his connections to business leaders.”
She added, “He’s a great father, a great individual thought leader in this space, and I think that the university would be extremely lucky and fortunate to have him lead them through this next phase and transition. So he has my complete endorsement.”
Trustee Alonzie Scott challenged Matthews handling of putting Diaz on the agenda without any other nominations for interim. He asked, “Who specifically did you talk to determine that this was the best candidate to bring to for the board?”
Matthews dodged answering the question. “Many folks. Folks in the community, folks in the board of Governors, folks in the administration, you name it.”
Scott pressed, “Can you provide any specific names of people you spoke to?”
The chair relented, “The chancellor of the Board of Governors and many others in the community I’ve talked with that are from Pensacola. So I don’t feel as if I need to run through that list today to be candid with you. So thank you for comments.”