The third candidate for the Bainbridge College presidency, Graham Hatcher, comes from a family of educators and is presently assistant to the president of Shelton State Community College in Tuscaloosa, Ala.

The candidate scheduled to visit Bainbridge on Monday, Sept. 20, notified the Bainbridge College Presidential Search Committee that he has accepted another position elsewhere. Those meetings with that candidate have been canceled.

In the biographical information supplied by Hatcher, he says he moved as his dad’s career led them to Carson-Newman College in Tennessee and eventually to Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, which he considers his hometown.

Hatcher attended Martin College (AA), Appalachian State University and Belmont College, from where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history. He played college tennis at each institution he attended. Following Belmont, he earned a master’s in physical education from Western Kentucky University and received the last Ph.D. in Health and Physical Education/Curriculum Leadership from George Peabody College as it merged with Vanderbilt University during his final summer of graduate school in 1979.

His first professional position was on the faculty of Carson-Newman College, where he served also as men’s tennis coach of a nationally-ranked team for five years. In 1984, he accepted a full-time faculty position at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. During that time he received tenure and assumed his first administrative appointment as coordinator of physical education. In 1991, he was called to the position of department chair and professor at Georgetown, Ky., College.

In 1993, he was asked to assume the additional duties of Associate Academic Dean, which evolved into a full-time appointment in 1995. For the next six years, he supervised enrollment management, information technology, academic support services, and church and alumni relations while teaching one course for freshmen. He also coordinated the efforts of six colleges and universities in a unique higher education consortium at the Toyota Manufacturing facility in Georgetown, Ky.

In 2001, he was nominated for and pursued the academic vice president position at Anderson, S.C., College. As chief academic officer, he oversaw an expansion of full-time faculty positions, increased funding for faculty development, significant curriculum revision, and the successful pursuit of program and regional accreditation.

When his president accepted another CEO position, Hatcher was named interim president and served in that capacity for six months.

In 2004, Hatcher was recommended to the search committee for the founding provost of the University of Mary-Hardin Baylor in Belton, Texas. His four years in this role coincided with a remarkable period of growth for the university. In addition to the university’s increased perception as evidenced by a rise in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, the university completed a successful reaffirmation process with SACS, gained national accreditation in five academic program areas, and initiated the university’s first doctoral program in educational leadership.

In 2008, in then went to Shelton State Community College.