15 December 2005

Dr. Patricia Cormier Receives Service Award from Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools

Patricia P. Cormier, Ph. D., president of Longwood University in Farmville, Va., recently received a James T. Rogers Meritorious Service Award from the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) at the association's 110th annual conference held in Atlanta. This is the seventh year the meritorious service and distinguished leadership awards have been given.

"Dr. Cormier was recognized for her valuable service to the Commission on Colleges, and her commitment and dedication to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools," said Belle S. Wheelan, Ph.D., president for the Commission on Colleges, the required accrediting body for more than 780 colleges and universities in the 11 Southeastern states.

"The commission extends our appreciation to Dr. Cormier for her distinctive leadership during her tenure as commissioner, and her intellectual honesty in all aspects of her work with the commission. She has made it clear that her involvement in commission activities is a professional priority," Dr. Wheelan added.

Before assuming the leadership of Longwood University, Dr. Cormier served three years as the chief academic officer at Winthrop University. Prior to this, she spent 12 years at the University of Pennsylvania, where she concluded her tenure as an associate professor and associate dean of academic affairs. Also, she served as vice president and dean of the college at Wilson College from 1984 to 1988. She was named vice president for development and alumni relations at the Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1989. She has published two highly regarded books in her field -- Community Oral Health: A Systems Approach and Educating the Dentist of the Future.

Under Dr. Cormier's leadership, Longwood University has been ranked among the top public institutions in the South for seven consecutive years by U.S News & World Report.

Since arriving in Virginia, she has dedicated herself to serving the Commonwealth and is especially active in fostering partnerships between business and higher education and K-12 and higher education. Dr. Cormier has served on the Governor's Five-Star Workforce Development Taskforce, the Governor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Higher Education, as a team leader on the Attorney General's Task Force on Alcohol Abuse, as a member of the Council of Presidents' Virginia 2000 Implementation Committee, and as Chair of the Committee to Enhance the K-12 Teaching Profession in Virginia (Department of Education and State Council for Higher Education in Virginia).

Currently she serves on the Advisory Council on Teacher Quality, the Virginia Philpott Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the Virginia Business-Higher Education Council, the Southside Virginia Business and Education Commission, and the Southern Virginia Higher Education Consortium.

Nationally Dr. Cormier serves on the Board for the National Teachers Hall of Fame, as chair of the Board of the American Association of State Colleges & Universities, on the Board of the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine, and on the ACE Commission on Leadership Development and Institutional Effectiveness.

Located in Decatur, Ga., the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools is the recognized regional accrediting body in the 11 U.S. Southern states --Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia -- and in Latin America for those institutions of higher education that award associate, baccalaureate, master's or doctoral degrees. The Commission on Colleges is the representative body of the College Delegate Assembly and is charged with carrying out the accreditation process. For more information about the association, visit www.sacscoc.org.