Search for new NWACC president progresses

BENTONVILLE — A search firm has been selected to find Northwest Arkansas Community College’s next president.

Ron Branscum, Board of Trustees chairman, announced Monday at a board meeting that the Association of Community College Trustees out of Washington, D.C., will help find President Evelyn Jorgenson’s replacement.

The same firm was used to select Jorgenson, 69, as the college’s third president in 2013, he said.

Jorgenson has worked in education for 48 years and will retire when her contract ends June 30.

“The ball is rolling,” Branscum said of the search.

The search firm will select five to seven semi-finalists and will present three to five candidates for the board to choose from for the next president, Branscum said.

“Right now the process is with the search committee and will eventually be handed off,” Branscum said.

A finalist for the college presidency is projected to visit the college in March, he said. The board plans to select a new president in April. The process could start over if they’re initially unable to find a good fit for the position, he said.

The college has budgeted $75,000 for the search, he said.

The board also received a presentation on one of the college’s latest learning tools, an anatomy table used to simulate dissections.

The table, built by Anatomage, is one of three purchased in June for about $234,000 total that will be used to enhance the education of the college’s medical students, said Mark Wallenmeyer, dean of health professions.

The tables were purchased with Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act funds, he said, noting the pandemic has prevented students from working on labs in local hospitals.

“Right now, we’re not working with the hospitals because of covid,” Wallenmeyer said. “They’re just overwhelmed.”

The tables include digital imagery of the biology of two healthy male and two healthy female people who donated their bodies to science, Wallenmeyer said. The table allows students to see the body anatomies in great detail and can have real-world patient information uploaded for current regional patients as well, he said.

“We can load them into the table so that the students can actually see a case of lung cancer,” Wallenmeyer said, of ailments students may be able to observe on the table.

The tables feature life-size touch screens that allow students and teachers to explore state-of-the-art digital images of the whole body and to access layers of anatomy to highlight specific systems, bones, muscle groups or processes, he said.

The tables began to be incorporated into curriculum this school year. They will replace the use of real cadavers, Wallenmeyer said. Human cadavers used for education cost about $20,000 each and last only a year, he said.

“This has all the benefits of the live dissection without all of the mess,” said Nick Virden, physical therapy assistant professor.

Lucas Pointer, a board member, said he was impressed with the table’s potential as an educational tool.

“It was impressive to see what different features it has,” Pointer said. “I can only imagine being a student and not cutting an actual cadaver using that technology.”

Arkansas State University Mid-South in West Memphis is the only other community college in the state with such anatomy tables, Jorgenson said.

Northwest Arkansas Community College is the largest two-year college in the state with an enrollment of more than 7,000 students.