The first Bainbridge College presidential candidate—a vice chancellor from Baton Rouge, La.—will be here Monday.

Bradley J. Ebersole, who for the past five and a half years has served as the vice chancellor for academic affairs at Baton Rouge Community College, will meet with students in the Kirbo Center Auditorium at Bainbridge College. Ebersole will meet with students from 1:15 to 2:15 p.m., and then with faculty and staff from 2:30 to 3:30.

The college will have a community session from 6 to 7 p.m. Monday at the Kirbo Center.

On Tuesday from 10:45 to 11:30 a.m., Ebersole will be available at BC’s Early County Academic Center.

According to biographical information provided to Tonya Strickland, chairman of the BC presidential search committee, Baton Rouge Community College serves a student body of 8,100 credit students. Bainbridge College’s student body is about half of Baton Rouge’s.

During his tenure at BRCC, Ebersole has led in the creation of 12 academic degrees and certificates, hired nearly 100 faculty and staff, led the development of a STEM academy, a Fifty Plus program, a winter online semester, an honors program, an expanded dual enrollment program and an evening and weekend program.

Ebersole earned his doctorate and master’s degree from the University of Maryland, a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University, and an associate’s from Catonsville Community College, Maryland.

Holding an Associate in Arts degree has made Ebersole a product of the organization he has served for 33 years.

“With this lifetime of experiences, he is fully aware of the mission of the community college, the nature of the community college student, the importance of diversity and student success, the role of the faculty, and the vitally important function the institution plays in the development of a region,” Ebersole wrote in the biographical information he submitted.

Prior to Baton Rouge, Ebersole was previously employed as assistant to the vice chancellor for learning and student development at The Community College of Baltimore County, a multi-campus system serving 25,000 students. While at CCBC, Ebersole was instrumental in bringing together a unified curriculum of three separate colleges as those institutions became a single organization.

Other professional assignments in Ebersole’s career include serving as the founding director of a successful and profitable continuing education program and leading a professional development college center serving 3,000 students. While serving in these capacities, he was involved in representing the college to the business community. Ebersole has also served as the director of international education and has taught sociology.

Ebersole’s visit is the first of seven scheduled candidate visits.

On Wednesday, information on the second candidate scheduled to visit will be released, Strickland said. The second candidate is scheduled to visit on Thursday, Aug. 26. Interested persons may view the full schedule online at www.thepostsearchlight.com/calendar

Following each candidate’s scheduled visit, the search committee is requesting feedback on the candidates.

Following the interviews, the committee will submit the names of three to five unranked finalists to the Board of Regents, which in turn will recommend a candidate to the chancellor. The new president will replace retiring President Tom Wilkerson.