Interviews set this week for four finalists to be president of MDC

The four finalists for Miami Dade College president will be on campus next week for in-person interviews. They are Madeline Pumariega, Gregory Fowler, Morgan Phillips and Lenore Rodicio.

The four finalists for president of Miami Dade College will be on campus next week to make presentations to the community before a new leader is selected Nov. 17.

On Friday, the search committee tasked with finding a successor to Eduardo J. Padrón — who retired over a year ago — swiftly narrowed seven semifinalists to three finalists. The sole internal candidate, MDC’s executive vice president and provost, Lenore Rodicio, joins them as a finalist carried over from the first presidential search that was suddenly scrapped last year.

The committee unanimously picked Madeline Pumariega, a former MDC student and Wolfson campus president, to advance to the final round. Pumariega, the provost of Tallahassee Community College and former chancellor of the Florida College System, is a Hialeah native. Both she and the search committee highlighted her local connections.

“Sometimes being the local candidate means that some folks have additional information,” said Nicole Washington, an MDC trustee who chairs the selection committee.

Washington previously worked with Pumariega on the “Rise to 55” campaign to increase Florida’s talent pipeline. Washington told the Miami Herald she and Pumariega were friends and colleagues.

“I love Madeline,” said Rick Beasley, executive director of CareerSource South Florida. “I’m going to be biased.”

With one vote fewer, Gregory Fowler was the committee’s second favorite. Fowler is president of Southern New Hampshire University’s global campus. The committee praised his approachable personality, entrepreneurial focus and clear vision.

“He is someone that, I’ll be very honest, if he doesn’t end up with the job I’m going to recruit him to the University of Miami,” said Rudy Fernandez,

UM’s senior vice president for public affairs and communications as well as chief of staff to the president.

With 10 votes out of a total 16, the third spot went to Morgan Phillips, vice chancellor for academic excellence at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. Fernandez said he found him to be knowledgeable and experienced. Others were more lukewarm.

Washington said she was “relatively impressed” while nursing professor Marie Etienne said Phillips would make for a great campus president.

The seven semifinalists were interviewed via video chat Thursday and Friday. There was an eighth semifinalist, Junius Gonzales, the provost and vice president for academic affairs at New York Institute of Technology, but an MDC spokesperson said he withdrew his application over the weekend without providing a reason.

Gonzales did not return requests for comment.

The other four semifinalists, Carlos Cortez, Kenneth Gonzalez, Joseph DiSalvo and Irene Rios, did not receive enough votes to advance. Committee members pointed out that the stronger candidates, with the exception of Phillips, were interviewed Friday.

AGB Search, the search firm contracted by the college, said the applicants chose their time slots around their schedule.

On Friday, MDC notified the community of opportunities to meet and watch the four finalists on campus either Nov. 12 or Nov. 13. Their days include campus visits and time slots for presentations, as well as coffee and lunch stops. The presentations will be live-streamed.