Issue: Summer 2014 | Posted: June 2, 2014

Called to Serve

Union Administrators Depart for New Challenges

Christian service involves both calling and sending. For years, President David S. Dockery challenged his administrators to be open to God’s call, even if it meant leaving Union for another place of service.

In recent years, former Dean of Instruction Barbara McMillin has become the president of Blue Mountain College in Mississippi and former Dean of the School of Theology and Missions Gregory Thornbury has assumed the presidency of The King’s College in New York.

Additional opportunities have opened in recent months. Here are a few of the leaders who are assuming new positions in higher education. Each has had a key role in the growth and development of Union University’s Christ-centered excellence.

GENE FANT

Union’s executive vice president for academic administration, who also serves as professor of English, announced his resignation in order to assume the role of provost at Palm Beach Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, Fla.

Palm Beach Atlantic offers about 50 undergraduate majors and graduate programs in business, leadership, psychology and pharmacy.

“Gene Fant has become one of the finest ambassadors of Christian higher education to be found anywhere in the country,” Dockery said. “His commitments to authentic, Christcentered higher education, his dedication to the liberal arts, his faithful churchmanship and his loyalty to the core values of Union University have made him a very special leader on the Union campus for more than a decade.”

Fant came to Union in 2002 from Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss.

“I leave behind wonderful friends and colleagues,” Fant said, “But I am excited about joining a vibrant sister institution that is on the doorstep of one of the world’s great cities, Miami.”

RICH GRIMM

Union’s senior vice president for enrollment services has resigned in order to accept a position at Trinity International University in Deerfield, Ill.

Grimm will join Dockery, who assumes the Trinity presidency in June, as the institution’s senior vice president in the areas of enrollment, university services and strategic initiatives.

“Rich Grimm is a talented and multi-gifted leader, who has invested himself for a decade in the life of Union University,” Dockery said. “He is recognized across the world of Christian higher education as one of the truly outstanding enrollment officers because of the quality of his work at Union, Palm Beach Atlantic University and Criswell College.”

Grimm said that he is “profoundly grateful for the opportunity that was ours to serve” at Union and that he is hopeful for the future of the university under the leadership of incoming president Samuel W. “Dub” Oliver. “May the Lord continue to bless the work of this great university for his glory,” Grimm said.

CARLA SANDERSON

Union’s provost and executive vice president for strategic initiatives has announced her retirement from the University and has been named vice president for accreditation and professional regulation for Chamberlain College of Nursing.

Headquartered in Chicago, Chamberlain offers a three-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree program at 13 campuses and online post-licensure nursing education undergraduate and graduate programs.

Sanderson has been associated with Union University for 32 years as a student, faculty member, and administrator.

“It is nearly impossible to calculate the significant influence of Carla D. Sanderson on the life and work of Union University over the past three decades,” Dockery said. “Through her roles as faculty member, dean, provost and executive vice president, Dr. Sanderson has made a remarkable contribution to almost all aspects of this institution.”

Sanderson and her family will remain in Jackson, where she will work from home and travel occasionally in her new role.

“The greatest privilege of my career came when David Dockery appointed me to the position of university provost,” Sanderson said. “Year after year, plan after plan, with new convocation challenges, new programs, new campuses, new faculty and staff, new buildings and new initiatives, I have grown in the honor that has been mine as an academic and operational leader at Union University.”

Sanderson and her husband Larry are members of First Baptist Church in Jackson and have three sons, two of whom are Union graduates.

TIM SMITH

The dean of the School of Nursing at Union University since 2005 has resigned in order to accept a position as vice president of strategic initiatives and special associate to the provost at Anderson University in Anderson, S.C.

“Tim Smith is recognized as one of the premier leaders in health care education in this region,” Dockery said. “His visionary and entrepreneurial skills have energized and advanced the outstanding nursing program at Union University over the past decade.”

“It has been an honor and blessing to serve in Dr. Dockery’s administration, partnering with leaders of the university, amazing faculty and staff of the School of Nursing and many others of this institution in serving the Lord through the lives of the students,” Smith said. “My wife and I will always cherish the memories and relationships from our time of serving at Union University and in the community as God sends us on a new journey.”