New chancellor recommended to lead Nevada’s higher education system

A committee is recommending that Lawrence Drake II lead the Nevada System of Higher Education as its next chancellor.

After interviewing three finalists, the chancellor search committee for the Board of Regents voted 4-1 on Thursday to back Drake for the job. Regent Amy Carvalho was the lone “no” vote.

The full Board of Regents could make a hiring decision and approve an employment agreement at 1 p.m. Friday at NSHE’s system administration office in Las Vegas.

But some regents, faculty and student leaders expressed concerns Thursday, saying they couldn’t recommend any of the finalists or thought there were issues with the search process.

Carvalho said she came into the process “really hopeful,” but felt finalists didn’t have the depth of knowledge the committee was looking for.

Carvalho said she doesn’t feel now is the time to take a leap of faith to try to “pick somebody in front of us.”

The chancellor is responsible for overseeing the state’s higher education system that includes eight public colleges and universities that serve about 100,000 students.

Drake is interim president of Bethune-Cookman University, a historically Black private university in Daytona Beach, Florida. Before that, he was a division president and CEO for the Coca-Cola Company.

Other finalists for the job are Charles Ansell and Kate Marshall.

Ansell is a Reno-based vice president for research, policy and advocacy at the nonprofit Complete College America. He was previously chief operating officer for the Community College System of New Hampshire and senior associate vice chancellor for City Colleges of Chicago.

Marshall was a White House special assistant to the president and senior adviser to governor from 2021 until earlier this year. She was Nevada’s lieutenant governor from 2019-21 and state treasurer from 2007-15.

Former state Superintendent of Public Instruction Dale Erquiaga is currently acting chancellor. His 18-month contract continues until the end of this year.

Before that, Melody Rose was chancellor until she resigned in April 2022 after 19 months on the job. She accepted $610,000 in severance pay.

Rose’s departure came months after she filed a complaint alleging a hostile work environment. A third-party investigation found insufficient evidence to support her claims, but noted some instances of an inappropriate professional environment and likely several violations of an ethical code of conduct for regents.

Concerns about picking a new chancellor

More than 30 advisory members — including college and university presidents, faculty and classified staff leaders, student leaders and community members — weighed in with their thoughts after listening to the interviews.

Many advisory members said there wasn’t a clear front-runner or that they wouldn’t recommend any of the three finalists as the next chancellor.

UNLV Faculty Senate Chair Bill Robinson said the finalists are “really good people, but not the next chancellor, in my opinion.”

The finalists are great people with unique skill sets, said Tracy Sherman, faculty senate chair at the College of Southern Nevada. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable with gambling on one of them as chancellor right now.”

Regent Heather Brown, who wasn’t on the search committee, said she feels it’s a failed search. She said there were problems with it from the beginning and none of the finalists checked all of the boxes of things she cares about.

Regent Carol Del Carlo, who also wasn’t on the committee, noted, “I don’t think we have a chancellor in any of them for what we need.”

She said she thinks the system needs someone internally who can hit the ground running, noting there are also many NSHE system office job openings.

There’s not time right now for someone to learn about Nevada, Del Carlo said.

She said she doesn’t feel it’s a failed search, but would like to look internally and go from there to appoint an interim chancellor.

Search process

NSHE received 87 applicants for the chancellor job. The search was conducted by The Bryan Group.

With all three finalists, there weren’t any discrepancies or criminal court findings during background checks, Nora Behrens with The Bryan Group said.

Approximately six people were called to provide reference checks for each candidate, and there wasn’t any disqualifying information uncovered, Behrens said.

Open candidate forums were held earlier this week in Reno and Las Vegas. They weren’t heavily attended in person, but were available to watch online, Behrens said.

Board vice chair Joseph Arrascada, who led the search committee, said it was an honor and “done with great integrity.”

But a couple of regents said the search process needs further examination in the future.

Regent Laura Perkins said it seems like Open Meeting Law was followed, but not human resources rules and regulations by interviewing finalists’ spouses.

“That doesn’t quite make sense to me,” she said.

Contact Julie Wootton-Greener at jgreener@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2921. Follow @julieswootton on Twitter.