BATON ROUGE, La. - After a nationwide search, the finalist pool for the next chancellor of Delgado Community College has been narrowed down to three candidates. The finalists, in alphabetical order, are Jonathan Gueverra, Ed.D., CEO of Community College of DC in the District of Columbia; Teresa Smith, Ph.D., vice president for administrative services & CFO at State Tallahassee Community College in Tallahassee, Florida; and Monty Sullivan, Ph.D., vice president of the Louisiana Community & Technical College System.

The finalists will now be invited to meet with the Delgado Community College search committee for interviews and to participate in a series of public forums with Delgado students, faculty and staff, Delgado Foundation Board members and community and business leaders.

Following the public forums, each candidate will be interviewed by Louisiana Community and Technical College System President Joe D. May who will make the final recommendation for the position to the LCTCS Board of Supervisors.

"All three of the candidates are very highly qualified to be the next chancellor of Delgado Community College. Each one is a proven leader with unique talents and abilities," said May. "We are certain that the best person for the job is in this group and are looking forward to this final round of interviews. We're eager to introduce them to the Delgado community and gather their input."

The candidate selected will succeed previous Delgado chancellor Ron Wright who accepted a leadership post as Special Assistant to the President for LCTCS Centers of Excellence. Deborah Lea has served as the acting chancellor since November of 2011.

The search committee will be chaired by Woody Oge, LCTCS Board of Supervisors member and director of business affairs at Ingalls Shipbuilding - Avondale operations. The search committee includes a Delgado student, Delgado faculty and staff members as well as local business and community leaders. The search committee members are:

• Woody Oge, Chair of Search Committee, LCTCS Board of Supervisors member
• Mickey Murphy, Personnel Chair, Board of Supervisors
• Mike Stone, Member, Board of Supervisors
• Bob Brown, Member, Board of Supervisors
• Tronn Miller , Delgado Faculty
• Shelley Tyler, Delgado Faculty
• David Teagle, Delgado SGA member
• Arnel Cosey, Delgado Staff
• Lee Giorgio, Delgado Foundation Representative
• Aimee Quirk, Community Representative

The candidate forums will take place on Monday, April 2 in three separate meetings with students, faculty and staff and community leaders. The meetings will take place on the Delgado campus in the Student Life Center. The schedule is as follows:

Finalists' biographies:

Jonathan Gueverra is the CEO of the first community college in the nation's capital. Since its launch in 2009, the institution has grown to serve over 7,000 students in academic and workforce programs. Before this assignment, Dr. Gueverra was Provost for the Alexandria Campus of Northern Virginia Community College. The campus served over 18,000 students on its main location and at a center in Arlington County. Prior to his service at NOVA, Dr. Gueverra served as Dean for the School of Business and Public Service at SUNY Canton. In this role, he directed activities that helped a former two-year technical college become a baccalaureate institution.

Dr. Gueverra's service in higher education includes roles as a Tutor, Faculty, Director of Program Development, Department Chair, Associate Dean and Dean, and at 2-year and 4-year colleges and universities. Gueverra has served on many boards in New England including the Massachusetts Business Educators Association. He is a founding member of the New England Educational Assessment Network, served as its treasurer for many years and still serves on NEEAN's editorial board. In the Washington, DC Metropolitan area, Gueverra has provided service on workforce investment councils, economic development partnerships, the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, the American Association for Community Colleges, P-20 councils and a variety of non-profit boards. Gueverra has consulted for colleges and businesses on areas related to planned change, program development, evaluation and assessment and developed partnerships with colleges in China, Russia, Ukraine and Brazil.

Gueverra earned the Associate in Applied Science from Newbury College, a Bachelor of Science from Providence College, a MBA and an Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He has been married to Josephine for 30 years and they have three children

Teresa E. Smith is the current Vice President for Administrative Services & CFO at Tallahassee Community College (TCC) in Tallahassee, FL and has served in this role for the past four years.  In addition to the responsibilities for accounting, budget, financial aid, physical plant, human resources, contact and grant management, procurement, lease and rental property management and auxiliary services, she has also served as the Interim Vice President for Information Technology for the past 28 months and is currently leading the college efforts in the replacement for the legacy ERP system.  TCC serves over 15,000 credit students and has a very robust public safety institute that offers statewide training for both credit and non-credit law enforcement programs for the state of Florida.  Prior to her joining TCC, she served for seventeen years at Piedmont Technical College in South Carolina beginning as the college's finance director and leaving as the Senior Vice President with responsibilities similar to those at TCC.

In addition to her administrative responsibilities in higher education, Dr. Smith has spent numerous hours in the classroom teaching and designing courses, both face to face and through online education.  She has taught all collegiate levels in higher education from certification classes to doctoral level courses. 

Dr. Smith has served on the constituent committee of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) as well as on the board of the Southern Association of College and University Business Officers (SACUBO).  She has also served as an accreditation reviewer with the Commission on Colleges for the Southern Association of Colleges for the past fourteen years.  Dr. Smith has presented at many conferences and symposiums and has co-published articles with distinguished colleagues during her tenure in higher educations.  One of the greatest achievements was being recognized as the Administrator of the Year for the South Carolina Technical Education System (two year college system) and being nominated for the Martha Kime Piper award for Excellence in Higher Education in Women's Leadership in South Carolina.

Before becoming a part of the higher education world, Dr. Smith spent seventeen years in private sector manufacturing beginning her career as a cost clerk at a small manufacturing plant in South Carolina and ending in the capacity of Corporate Controller for a large medical device manufacturer based in Timonium, Maryland.  Other major corporations that she worked for include Amoco (a subsidiary of Standard Oil) and Duracell (a division of Kraft Foods). 

Dr. Smith has her terminal degree from Clemson University in Educational Leadership (Ph.D.), an MBA from Winthrop University, BS from Lander University and an AS degree from Tri-County Technical College, all located in South Carolina. 

Monty Sullivan currently serves as the Executive Vice President for the Louisiana Community and Technical College System (LCTCS). He is responsible for academic programs, student services, institutional research, and workforce development for the system. He also has administrative oversight for the state's Perkins program.

Prior to coming to the LCTCS, Dr. Sullivan served as Vice Chancellor for Academic Services and Research for the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). In addition to his duties as Vice Chancellor, he also served a dual role as Interim President of Eastern Shore Community College from January through May 2009. While in Virginia, he provided leadership for the Vice Presidents of Virginia's 23 community colleges advancing developmental education, student success, and data warehousing initiatives to accomplish the Chancellor's vision- Dateline 2009. Dr. Sullivan worked closely with stakeholders from across the Commonwealth to improve the transfer environment, including passage of the Two-year College Transfer Grant. He also provided leadership in the development of the Virginia Education Wizard.

Prior to his service with the VCCS, Sullivan was one of the founding employees of Louisiana Delta Community College in 2001. He has also served as Director of the Center for Rural Development at Louisiana Tech University, Director of Continuing Education at Louisiana State University at Eunice, and Coordinator of the Mobile Automated Learning Lab (MALL) Project at Grambling State University. Dr. Sullivan has maintained a keen interest in the development of allied health programs especially in rural areas. He has been successful in generating external funding throughout his career through grants and contracts. His research and programmatic interests include adult education, electronic learning, allied health education, e-commerce, rural development, economic and community development, and student learning styles.

Dr. Sullivan is a graduate of Louisiana Tech University with a doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction. He and his wife Kelley have four daughters-Logan, Maci, Baylee, and Allie.