By Ashley Escobar and Virginia Gipson
Editor-in-Chief and Page Editor
The Amarillo College board of regents has announced its two presidential finalists: Dr. Frank Sobey and Dr. Jamelle J. Conner.
Originally from San Antonio, Sobey holds three degrees from Texas Tech University, including a bachelor’s in philosophy in English in 1998 and a master’s degree in English shortly thereafter. After attending Baylor University for graduate school, he worked his way to earning his doctorate in higher education management from Texas Tech University in 2018.
He became a part of the AC community as an English instructor in 2005 and worked his way up to assistant professor in 2009. In 2014, he was appointed chair of English, Humanities and Languages, followed by dean of Arts and Sciences and assistant vice president of academic affairs in 2016. He was appointed VPAA earlier this year and currently remains in this position.
Sobey said that he recognizes that one of the several challenges that Amarillo faces is related to low education attainment. Specifically regarding the significant percentage of high school graduates that do not attend college, which in turn he said, impacts the work force. “For us to thrive and experience economic prosperity in this region, we need a work force that is diverse, talented and that has skills to attract new businesses and to meet the needs of the employers in this region,” Sobey said.
He said that community colleges are the backbone to the country. Sobey said they don’t get the same amount of funding as universities do, but they ultimately have a more significant impact on local, regional, state and national economies.
“It’s very underappreciated,” Sobey said. “What I love about community colleges too is that they’re much more by nature, student centered. Faculty are focused on teaching as opposed to research. Typically, then it’s going to be much more special, much more intimate. I love that aspect that everybody here is committed to our students and goes out of their way to make a con-nection and to get invested in their lives and to learn more about them. And I think one of the downstream effects of that is it helps us to identify when students are struggling and then be able to help them overcome that challenge.”
Sobey said that by promoting higher education in students in elementary and middle schools through summer camps, hands-on activities and tours, it will cultivate a relationship with students to pursue an academic pathway through AC.
“Most of our students are first generation, which means that they don’t have a lot of family experience to draw upon,” Sobey said. “And college can be kind of a mystery, a mysterious unknown that can inspire a lot of fear. And my belief is that we need to be more present, more outward facing in those students’ academic journeys as early as possible.”
As a finalist, Sobey said he believes that he can be the one to be responsible for helping create a work environment that is meaningful and inspires joy for the mission AC has to serve students and help them to be successful.
“As President, I would want to take on that challenge,” Sobey said. “To do so in a way that meets the students where they are and helps them with the barriers that they have in their lives related to education, academic preparedness, socioeconomic status and the different obligations they have.”
Conner received a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Tampa in Florida in 2001 and her Ph.D. in leadership and education, with a focus in higher education administration, from Barry University in Florida in 2018. She began at St. Petersburg College, a four-year public college in St. Petersburg, Florida in 2008 as the associate vice president of strategic execution and administrative systems support.
In 2015, she was chosen provost of the St. Petersburg/Gibbs campus, where she served for three years. Since 2019, Conner has been the vice president of student affairs at the same college. Conner was not available at this time of publication for comment.
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