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Cathy Cox, a former Georgia Secretary of State and current dean of the Mercer University law school, has been named as the sole finalist for Georgia College’s vacant president’s position.
The Georgia Board of Regents is expected to “take action on the position at a future board meeting, no sooner than five days from naming a finalist,” according to a university press release.
“I am very excited for the chance to build upon Georgia College & State University’s reputation, and work with faculty and staff to create a world-class destination for the liberal arts right here in Georgia,” Cox said in the press release.
Current-President Steve Dorman announced in January that he’d be stepping down, effective at some point this fall. Dorman replaced Dorothy Leland, who began her administration at GCSU in 2004 before leaving in 2011 to become the president of the University of California, Merced in northern California, where she originally was from. Leland, meanwhile, replaced Dorothy Depaolo, who led GC from 1997 to 2003. Depaolo departed to become the chancellor of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington, a position that she’s held ever since.
Dorman, who previously was a dean at the University of Florida before he and his wife relocated to Milledgeville, was the ninth-highest paid president in the state’s public University system during the 2020 fiscal year, earning a salary of $330,225, according to the state’s database. The highest-paid presidents were Georgia State’s Mark Becker ($2.8 million), Georgia Tech’s Angel Cabrera ($1.03 million), Georgia’s Jere Morehead ($911,000), Augusta University’s Brooks Allen Keel ($899,325) and Kennesaw State’s Pamela Whitten ($493,000).
The details of Cox’s contract are expected to be sorted out during the upcoming Regent’s meeting. Mercer is a private university, so her currently salary is not publicly available.
Cox, the democratic candidate, defeated Republican challenger John McCallum in the 1998 Secretary of State election. Cox then won re-election in 2002 before deciding to run for governor several years later. She finished second in the 2006 democratic primary before transitioning to academia and becoming the president of Young Harris, a private college in north Georgia.
According to the press release, "As the 21st president of Young Harris, a private liberal arts college in the north Georgia mountains, Cox led its transition from a two-year college to a four-year institution and oversaw unprecedented growth. Prior to assuming the Young Harris presidency, Cox served two terms as Georgia’s secretary of state, and was the first woman in the state’s history to be elected to the post, first in 1998 and again in 2002. In the spring of 2007, she held the Carl E. Sanders Political Leadership Chair at the University of Georgia School of Law.”
Added the press release: “A native of Bainbridge, Cox served two terms in the Georgia House of Representatives and has remained an active member of the State Bar of Georgia. In 2011, she was presented with the Traditions of Excellence Award for General Practice by the State Bar’s General Practice and Trial Section. In 2020, she was named the Outstanding Woman Lawyer by the Middle Georgia chapter of the Georgia Association of Women Lawyers.
Cox worked as a newspaper reporter for three years before entering law school, working for The Times in Gainesville and The Post-Searchlight in Bainbridge. She earned a degree in journalism, summa cum laude, from the University of Georgia and is a 2013 inductee to the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication’s Grady Fellowship. Cox also holds an associate’s degree in agriculture from Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton.”
