Sterling College

Letter from Dr. Douglas

It’s an honor to be the tenth president of Sterling College; my wife Dee and I feel called to this duty. This is an opportunity to serve in a college that seeks strategic leadership and change. I can bring to this Christian college a vision of the changing environment in higher education, coupled with a demonstrated ability to manage transition to new heights.

I’m passionate about improving education opportunities for young people. A few years ago my wife and I adopted a fourth grade inner-city school class, supporting them through high school and funding their college educations at five different institutions. We’ve been deeply involved and care dramatically about the successful progress of these students.

There is a theology of leadership in my Christian faith that embodies respect and empowerment of others through charism. Throughout my career as an instructor, interim university president, trustee and participant in various civic endeavors, I’ve exemplified leadership and growth in service to various institutions. I practice collaborative and collegial college leadership, caring deeply about the quality of professional programs and revering the faculty who support them with research, publishing, teaching and community service.

In the academic and financial management restructuring at Wilberforce University; the establishment of northwest Ohio’s only public policy body (New Ohio Institute); creation of Toledo’s new economic development entity (Regional Growth Partnership); and the accreditation efforts of the Crummer Graduate School of Business at Rollins College I’ve been an entrepreneur and builder, creating a vision that led the institution to a higher plateau.

As a board chair of a state institution in its first fundraising campaign, a gubernatorial candidate, and campaign leader for the Fort Meig’s Historical Society, the Sight Center, the Toledo Museum of Art, and the Toledo Symphony, I’ve come to understand fundraising and enjoy its human aspects. Adding to the endowment at Sterling will be an important concern of mine.

My long time financial partner, Philip I. Levin, will review the financial and management structure of the school and recommend further effective change. A college should be as inefficient as it can afford to be, and Phil will see that there is efficiency on the administrative side in order that funds and emphasis may be placed on the important programs of the school, supporting the luminary faculty members who lead them.

The members of the board of trustees, led dynamically by Tony Thompson, have accumulated a special fund to support meritorious programs at Sterling. They deserve credit and approbation for providing monies which will be employed, at their direction, as a result of the institutional review.

This will be a time for thoughtful, gentle change with harmony, not conflict. The trustees have engaged Dr. James L. Fisher to do an institutional review of the college. There will be a candid assessment of every dimension of Sterling, containing the substance of a strategic plan while making specific and strategic recommendations for the future based on the present condition of the institution. From this we’ll develop a deeper sense of engagement and shape realistic and universal expectations of faculty, administrators, students, trustees, alumni and others leading to support from the myriad constituencies beyond the campus. The thoughtful investment of all concerned parties will be its goal.