LIBERTY, Mo. (BP)–A Lutheran college vice president and Oklahoma Baptist University graduate has been selected as the 14th president of William Jewell College, Liberty, Mo.
David L. Sallee, 48, vice president for enrollment management at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, since 1993, will assume the presidency at Jewell on Aug. 28 at the beginning of the school’s fall term.
Luther College, with 2,550 students, is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Sallee succeeds W. Christian Sizemore, president of the 1,600-student Baptist-affiliated college since 1994, who has been named chancellor.
A nationwide search was conducted by a committee of trustees, faculty, staff, alumni, students and community members, chaired by Doyle M. Sager, pastor of First Baptist Church, Jefferson City, Mo., and a trustee of the college. Trustees approved Sallee’s selection in a June 16 meeting.
Prior to assuming his current position at Luther, Sallee spent eight years as vice president for enrollment management at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Okla. He also served OBU as director of planned giving from 1984-85; director of athletics, chair of the department of health and physical education and women’s basketball coach, 1978-84; and assistant men’s basketball coach and assistant professor of physical education, 1976-78.
Sager said of Sallee, “With his proven record of relationship building, he is an ideal choice to lead William Jewell College into the 21st century.”
Sallee’s 24-year higher education career includes student recruitment and retention, financial aid, teaching, academic administration, planning and marketing. He also is a former public school teacher in Diamond, Mo. and Webb City, Mo.
Sallee graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1973 with a bachelor of arts in physical education and then earned a master of science in physical education from Pittsburg (Kan.) State University in 1976 and a Ph.D. in adult and higher education from the University of Oklahoma in 1993.
Sallee and his wife, Mary, have two sons: Andrew, an admissions counselor at William Jewell, and Patrick, a junior at Oklahoma Baptist University.
“Mary and I are both thrilled and deeply honored to be joining the William Jewell family with its long history of liberal arts education,” Sallee said.
“The overarching role of the president is to help create and maintain an environment that supports learning,” he added. “Quality education begins with two people, a teacher and a student, both committed to learning and both working in an atmosphere that facilitates rigorous engagement.”
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