Five months and 110 candidate applications later, UF’s search committee for a new student affairs vice president has come down to three finalists.
UF was left without a vice president for student affairs when the university fired David Parrott in April following an investigation into misused administrative funds.
Brandi Hephner LaBlanc, D’Andra Mull and Kent Porterfield are the final candidates in the running. One will be chosen for the position in a few weeks, said Chris Hass, the search committee chair and associate provost for academic and faculty affairs. The winner will likely start in January.
The finalists were chosen based on a detailed wishlist laid out by the search committee through the search firm Spelman Johnson, where all candidates applied. The new vice president for student affairs must have knowledge in interdepartmental communication, budgeting, legal issues and student needs.
“Because the division so large and complex, we really need somebody who can check all the boxes,” Hass said.
Hass said he doesn’t know yet how much the new vice president will be paid. As of Spring 2019, Parrott’s annual salary was more than $100,000, according to state records.
Brandi LaBlanc
Hephner LaBlanc is the vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Mississippi. She helped establish the Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement, which provides programming and services for minority groups and the LGBTQ+, and the William Magee Center for Wellness Education. The center helps students recover from substance addictions.
She said she has a “servant heart” and is focused on internal communication, inclusion and data collection. In the job, she would listen to students’ needs and allocate resources to satisfy needs.
“If we have students are willing to tell their story, and we often do, that's what gets funding,” she said during a public speech in the Reitz Union last Wednesday.
D'Andra Mull
Mull is The Ohio State University’s associate vice president for student life and dean of students. She helped establish a program in which more than 5,000 sophomores are assigned a mentor and matched to internships and leadership opportunities.
She also helped develop Day in the Life of a Buckeye, a program that gathers more than 400 high school students and partners them with current students to learn about college life.
Mull said she is “always in the trenches” helping students — especially first generation students, as she was one herself. She values college affordability and academic partnerships.
“Our job is not to make sure the students do everything that we think they should do, but we should be enablers for student success,” Mull said during a public speechMonday. “They may stumble, but our job is to make sure they don't totally fall flat.”
Kent Porterfield
Porterfield is Saint Louis University’s vice president for student development. He helped launch programs that provide academic tutoring and writing help, as well as guide students to community service opportunities and give out grants to nonprofits.
Porterfield said that he’s honored to be a finalist, and that UF’s students have made a positive impression on him.
“They are very engaged on campus, and they greatly value their student experience,” Porterfield wrote in an email.
