AC Board Of Regents Names Two Finalists

Amarillo College is one step closer to naming a new President. The Board of Regents announced the two Tuesday.

They are Dr, Jamelle J. Connor, vice president of student affairs at St. Petersburg College in Pinellas County, Florida, and Dr. Frank Sobey, vice president of academic affairs at Amarillo College.

Both will next interview with the AC Board of Regents, afterward one or both will be invited to take part in a series of on-campus interviews and in-person interviews. According to the school’s posted timeline, that process will take place between Oct. 28 and Nov. 11. A lone finalist is expected to be selected Nov. 19, and announced in December.

In the meantime, Denese Skinner will continue in the role of Interim President.

Dr. Jamelle J. Conner, Ph.D., has since 2018 served as vice president of student affairs at St. Petersburg College, a four-year public college in St. Petersburg, Fla., which serves almost 40,000 students a year. She began her work at the college in 2008 as associate vice president of strategic execution and administrative systems support. Seven years later she was named provost of the St. Petersburg/Gibbs campus and served there for three years.

Conner earned a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Tampa (Fla.) in 2001, and she completed her Ph.D. in leadership and education, with a specialization in higher education administration, at Barry University (Fla.) in 2018.

Dr. Frank Sobey, Ed.D., vice president for academic affairs (VPAA) at Amarillo College, joined the AC faculty as an instructor of English in 2005 and steadily ascended since – to assistant professor (2009), chair of English, Humanities, and Languages (2014), dean of Arts and Sciences (2016), and associate VPAA (also in 2016). He was named VPAA earlier this year.

The San Antonio native has three degrees from Texas Tech University, including a doctoral degree in higher education administration. He has chaired or helped lead a number of high-priority initiatives at AC, from coordination of the school’s participation in Texas Pathways to supporting the development of the award-winning Rural Nursing Education Consortium.