DeSantis ally withdraws name from Broward College presidency; first female named to top post
In an unexpected twist, Barbara Bryan, a former administrator with nearly 40 years of experience in higher education, will be Broward College’s acting president — instead of Henry Mack, an ally of Gov. Ron DeSantis whom the college’s Board of Trustees had selected Tuesday.
Bryan will be the first female president of the college, one of the largest in the country with about 56,000 students.
At a meeting Tuesday at the college’s Downtown Fort Lauderdale center, the five members of the Board of Trustees voted unanimously to name Mack, 42, acting president after interviewing him, Bryan and another candidate. They selected Bryan, 67, as the “option B” in case Mack’s hiring didn’t go through.
That option came to fruition when Mack withdrew his name from the process Tuesday afternoon after he and representatives from the college couldn’t agree on compensation or duration of his contract.
Board of Trustees Chair Alexis Yarbrough told the Herald in an interview Wednesday that Mack wanted the contract to last for at least a year and requested a $400,000 annual salary with a housing allowance. The college would only go up to a six-month contract, and wanted his salary to fall somewhere between $250,000 and $350,000, the range posted for the job online, Yarbrough said.
Mack did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Herald Wednesday.
Bryan officially started Tuesday and will work for six months until April 3, 2024. If the five trustees want, they could extend her term for another six months after that, according to her contract. She will make an annual salary of $287,004.
“I am grateful that the board had slated two candidates, and we’ve been able to move swiftly to get Dr. Bryan in the role,” Yarbrough said.
Bryan replaced former President Gregory Haile, who resigned abruptly on Sept. 13, vaguely citing a need for a transition in his two-page resignation letter. Haile made an annual salary of $287,000 and could also receive supplemental merit pay of $70,000 annually, according to his contract, which was slated to end in June 2024.
READ MORE: Broward College accepts president’s resignation, plans to name acting president soon
“I am thrilled for the opportunity to lead Broward College through this time of transition,” Bryan said in a college release Wednesday. “I’ve spent the greater part of my career at the institution, and it is an honor for me to return in the capacity of acting President to serve among the dedicated and passionate faculty and staff in our mission to provide quality education and job training to our community.”
Who is Barbara Bryan, the new Broward College acting president?
Bryan started her career in 1982 in Alachua County working at the University of Florida and Santa Fe College for about five years.
She joined Broward College in 1987 as the Student Affairs’ community outreach coordinator, then worked in enrollment management from 1988 to 1998.
In 1998, she became the associate vice president of Student Affairs, then the dean of business affairs in 2006 and the dean of academic affairs in 2007. She served as provost from 2006 to 2011 and north campus president from 2006 to 2013. She retired in 2013 and started her own business, Higher Education Consulting.
She still, however, worked part time in the college’s faculty early alert system, which helps students before they fail.
A native Floridian, originally from Jacksonville, Bryan, a first-generation college student, earned a bachelor’s in sociology and both a master’s and an education specialist degree in counselor education from the University of Florida. She also graduated with a doctorate in higher education administration from Barry University.
