Richard McCrary
Richard D. McCrary, Ed.D., is well accustomed to transitions in higher education and has worked in many changing roles since his career in the district started July 31, 1972, as a counselor at Mountain View College. Dr. McCrary has served at six district colleges including interim vice president positions at four. He seems the obvious choice to be called upon to lead Brookhaven College during this transitional year as we begin the search for a new president. Prior to joining the district, McCrary worked in a variety of positions in student development at a small liberal arts college, a state public university, and a large, research university.
With a number of titles that often have included the word “interim,” McCrary’s new title as executive vice president and chief instructional officer may sound more permanent, but it’s not. McCrary will not be applying for the position as Brookhaven College’s next president. Why not, you may ask? (For those that know his quick and wry wit, you can guess some of McCrary’s answers to this question.)
“The college deserves a president who can devote years of his or her career to this institution,” said McCrary. As an administrator with more than 36 years of work in the district, he sees his future as spending more of his time with his two grandsons. An added benefit is that it also removes that question from people’s perceptions of his leadership in the coming year. There can’t be any doubt then that he will be making the choices he believes are best as opposed to any that might reflect well upon an application for the president’s position.
There are some specific goals McCrary would like to reach during his tenure, he said. He took to heart the information regarding improving communication, which was spelled out in the district’s ModernThink Survey. Across the board, employees conveyed that there was a need for more open communication throughout the district. So, he has taken some new steps to do this including adding members to the President’s Cabinet meetings. With the addition of the presidents of the Faculty and Professional Support Staff associations and a representative from the Administrators’ Council, he said he hopes to create a new avenue for sharing information with the association and the whole of the college. During the transitional year, Dr. Wright L. Lassiter Jr., chancellor, will be attending these meetings to gain a better understanding of the college. Adding members to the PCAB meetings allows the members more access to the chancellor as well.
McCrary also has taken steps to emphasize learning communities by asking Nancy Barlow, English professor, to work with a team to formulate new plans to promote the teaching method to faculty and these courses to students. He also has asked Adrien Cuellar-McGuire, humanities professor, to work on building bridges between college faculty and the teachers at the Early College High School, especially since students will take 9th and 10th grade courses at Ranchview High School and most others will be integrated into regular college classes. A long-term facilities plan beyond the bond projects, improving retention and increasing the budgeting and planning committee’s role in budget planning are just a few of the other goals he would like to move forward during his year, he said. Ultimately, he would like to have these projects in place and moving forward so that the new president, when selected, can continue work on long-term programs for the college.
“How does this impact our students?” said McCrary “has always been a guiding motto for me.” His management style is one that is inclusive. He talked about limits of freedom and how as he gets to know the people he works with and is able to see how they work and how he can trust them to take care of students, he feels he can pass on more and more freedom to others to move forward in their roles. Always looking for ways to improve, he said that while he hopes he could do a perfect job he is more focused on making sure that when there are mistakes, everyone can learn from them and make sure they are not repeated.
His desire not to repeat mistakes may come from his educational background in history. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history/English and a master’s degree in student personnel/counseling at East Texas State University (now Texas A&M-Commerce). He also has additional graduate work at The Ohio State University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Illinois. He finished his doctorate in Community College Leadership at Nova Southwestern University.
“I’m humbled by the responsibility (in taking on the college’s leadership),” said McCrary. “I hope that I can make some changes that will be maintained at this institution.” He said that it was a personal challenge to be leading the college during this transition year, and with all the changes happening at the college right now it also will be a great challenge to a new president. There are both programmatic and physical changes going on at the college that need to keep moving forward and to continue to make headway. He likes looking out the windows of the office and seeing all the students moving around the college, and hopes to open the doors to the president’s office so that it can become more than just an office but also a public space.
Time management is the biggest challenge McCray says he is facing in his new role. He may be eating more of his meals at SUBWAY® instead of enjoying a lunch away at Thai-riffic, his favorite local restaurant for lunch. He said one of the challenges in managing his time, was that he likes to bring people together to work on projects or issues and it always takes time to gather all the pieces and people. He has a talent for bringing people together and building consensus according to others who have worked with him.
If you don’t see him out for lunch, whenever you do find him out and about, you can always strike up a conversation with him about travel. McCrary has traveled around the world, literally with a semester-at-sea program he enjoyed a few years ago. He most recently returned from the Ukraine, where he visited with a group from Dartmouth College this summer. His count has his travels to more than 40 countries on every continent (except Antarctica).
