GPC Announces Finalists for Vice President For Academic Affairs

For Immediate Release

GPC announces the final two candidates for the position of Vice President for Academic Affairs. They are: Dr. Alan Jackson of Georgia Perimeter College in Decatur, and Dr. Michael Reiner of Florida State College in Jacksonville.

Dr. Alan Jackson is currently the Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs at Georgia Perimeter College. Before assuming the interim duties, he served as the Dean of Humanities and Fine Arts for six years.

In his 18 years at the GPC, Dr. Jackson taught the full complement of English courses, was promoted from instructor to professor of English, before serving as Dean.

In addition, he has started a tutoring center at the college’s former Rockdale site, served as non-fiction editor of The Chattahoochee Review and was Faculty Senate Chair.

Jackson earned his doctorate in English from the University of Tennessee in 1999.
 

Before coming to GPC, he received a Bachelor of Science in English from the University of Southern Indiana and a Master of Arts in English from the University of Dayton.

Dr. Jackson is the author of “Byron Herbert Reece and the Southern Poetry Tradition” (Mellen 2001) and co-editor of three books: “Reforming College Composition” (Greenwood 2000); “Launching Fanny Hill: Essays on the Novel and Its Influence” (AMS 2003); and “Faithfully Yours: The Letters of Byron Herbert Reece” (Cherokee 2007). In addition, he edited “Humanities in the South” (1998-2004) and “The Byron Herbert Reece Society Newsletter” (2003-06).
 

In recent years, Dr. Jackson led several important projects at Georgia Perimeter College. These include:
• Helping to write and edit the college’s Strategic Plan and presenting it to faculty and members of the University System of Georgia;
• Overseeing the national Roadmap Project, for which GPC was recognized as one of 12 colleges in the nation to lead innovative strategies to improve student success;
• Overseeing the “Project DEgree” grant application, which resulted in the college’s selection to receive one of eight grants given by the Gateway to College Network to improve learning support exit rates.
 

Currently, Dr. Jackson serves on the statewide Complete College America project and represents the USG on the Transform Remediation committee.

Dr. Michael B. Reiner

Dr. Michael B. Reiner is the current executive dean of the Kent Campus and Cecil Center of Florida State College in Jacksonville.
 

He has spent the past 28 years in higher education, serving both as faculty and as an administrator, driven by one mission: to promote student learning, development, and academic success. He served as an administrator in academic affairs for the past 11 years, first as chair of the Social and Behavioral Sciences at Santa Fe Community College, then as campus dean at Edison College before coming to Florida State College.
 

As executive dean, Dr. Reiner oversees instruction, faculty, curriculum and learning resources. He played a significant role in the opening of a new educational facility, the Cecil Center. In addition, he was responsible for the redesign of traditional libraries to promote teaching and learning by reshaping the facilities as learning commons.
 

His scholarly activities include being a member of the editorial board of the Florida Association of Community Colleges’ “Journal of Applied Research: Visions” and presenting at professional conferences. Most recently, he delivered an address at the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development, “Turning the Titanic: Instituting Institutional Change in Developmental Education.”
 

Before becoming an administrator, Dr. Reiner was a professor of psychology for 17 years at Texas Wesleyan College, Salem College and Kennesaw State University. He taught courses in developmental psychology, child psychology, cognitive psychology, learning and memory, and critical thinking in psychology. During this time, he was an advocate for international education and traveled extensively with students and faculty.
 

While at Kennesaw State, he was promoted to full professor and recognized for his accomplishments with the Distinguished Teaching Award. In 1998, he was named USG Board of Regents Distinguished Professor for Teaching and Learning.
 

Dr. Reiner earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, magna cum laude, from Haverford College in Pennsylvania in 1976 and a doctorate in child psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota in 1983.