Troy’s Phenix City campus has a new leader. Her priority? ‘Strengthen the community’
The Phenix City campus of Troy University is getting a new leader.
Dionne Rosser-Mims, dean of the university’s College of Education and a professor of adult education, will succeed the retiring David White as the vice chancellor in charge of the Phenix City campus, Troy announced Wednesday.
The transition is effective Oct. 1.
Rosser-Mims will be the third vice chancellor in Troy-Phenix City’s 45-year history — and the first female and the first person of color to lead the campus, comprising 5,447 students (4,900 online, 547 in person) and 76 employees.
“Over the course of my professional career, there have been a number of incidences where I have been the first or the only,” she told the Ledger-Enquirer. “I don’t typically focus on it, but I do recognize the gravity of the opportunity.
“ … I hope I serve as a great representative and model for any female and, in particular, any woman of color to serve in this capacity.”
Experience
Rosser-Mims, 43, has nearly 20 years of experience in adult education. That aligns with Troy’s enrollment, which is about 95% nontraditional, with students working while taking classes or changing careers.
She previously was on the faculty at the University of Georgia’s Fanning Institute for Leadership. She worked on projects targeting counties suffering from economic, educational and social disparities.
She has spoken at numerous regional, national and international conferences, such as the inaugural Higher Education Resource Services East Africa Leadership Academy.
Rosser-Mims is cofounder and former coeditor in chief of “Dialogues of Social Justice: An Adult Education Journal” and has authored four books on a range of topics from Black male educators to women leaders.
She was president of Troy’s Faculty Senate for two years and received the university’s distinguished faculty award in 2013.
Rosser-Mims is a founding board member and vice president of Steps of Love, a nonprofit organization that collects clothing for those in need. She also is a board member for the Alabama School Readiness Alliance and the Troy Boys & Girls Club.
Challenges
Two challenges are top of mind for Rosser-Mims as she takes the helm at Troy-Phenix City: increasing enrollment, which is down 9.8% over the past 10 years, and helping the community grow.
“I’m looking for innovative ideas,” she said, “and other ways in which we can partner with key stakeholders to strengthen the community.”
As for the type of leader she is, Rosser-Mims described herself as collaborative, fast-paced and welcoming of ideas.
“I really enjoy bringing diverse perspectives to the table,” she said. “I also enjoy helping people to see and reach their potential.”
Someone who didn’t see her potential motivated Rosser-Mims to prove him wrong.
When the career counselor at her high school in Houston County, Georgia, showed her options for college, all the choices were two-year schools.
“That was disheartening,” she said. “I thought that was in indicator on his part that he did not believe in my abilities.”
Rosser-Mims not only heeded her mother’s advice to tell the counselor how he made her feel, she used it as motivation to succeed.
“That moment was what really sort of inspired me to continue to always excel, to go above and beyond,” she said.
At Piedmont College, Rosser-Mims became Student Government Association president, yearbook editor, a resident assistant and a member of two honor societies. And she worked as a switchboard operator while earning three bachelor’s degrees (math, psychology and sociology) with a minor in English. Then she earned a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Georgia and a doctorate in adult and continuing education and teaching from UGA.
Growth
White, 72, has led Troy-Phenix City for 10 years. His 24-year career with the university includes working as director of the Southeast Region for Troy’s Global Campus, responsible for 23 sites in six states, and director of Troy-Fort Benning, where he also was associate director of academic affairs and a professor in the department of kinesiology and health promotion.
“Under his leadership,” Troy chancellor Jack Hawkins said in an email, “Troy University played a leading role in the effort to revitalize the Phenix City riverfront through the construction of our beautiful Riverfront Campus facility.”
About 65% of Troy-Phenix City’s operations have moved to the one-building new campus in the $12 million first phase, which ran from 2012-15.
In three to five years, White told the L-E, the final phase of the move should be finished, depending on fundraising for the estimated $10 million it will take to expand the four-story riverfront building from 44,000 square feet to 82,000 square feet. That’s roughly the total space the original campus has in five buildings.
The facility growth has happened while the campus operating budget has been cut 22% over the past 10 years to $281,989, excluding salaries, White said.
Community
White’s community involvement includes serving as:
- Vice chairman for the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley.
- Board member for the East Alabama Chamber of Commerce, the Muscogee Educational Excellence Foundation and the Columbus 2025 Implementation Committee.
- Strategic planning for Columbus Technical College, Uptown Columbus, the Phenix City Housing Authority, the Phenix City Office of Economic Development and the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce.
White considers community engagement an important part of the job as vice chancellor.
“I felt that Phenix City, Russell County and Muscogee County were too disengaged from one another,” he said. “That was a role I felt I could help with. I could be a neutral party in sort of bridging between those communities.”
White is one of the administrators who hired Rosser-Mims as a faculty member at Troy. He called her “smart, innovative” and “the epitome of leadership. … She’s the perfect person for it. She has an incredible heart for community … She’s a team builder.”
Rosser-Mims acknowledged she has big shoes to fill, but she expressed confidence Troy-Phenix City is set for success.
“It’s a little intimidating but more so exciting,” she said. “Dr. White has laid an incredible foundation, hired great people here at this campus, so my job will be to take the great work that he has done — he and the team — and to really take it to wherever we can go and really take it to another level.”
This story was originally published September 24, 2020 at 3:20 PM.
