CCU hosts business-education forum
Sponsored by Coastal's Biddle Center for Teaching and Learning, the conference will bring together business leaders, higher education and public school representatives to address the crisis in K-12 student achievement in South Carolina schools. Speakers and participants will share strategies and develop a plan of action.
The featured speakers are Jim Rex, state superintendent of education; Don Herriott of Roche Chemical Manufacturing; and David DeCenzo, Coastal's provost and president-elect.
During his career, Rex has served as the dean of education at Winthrop University, dean of education at Coastal, president of Columbia College, and vice president for development and alumni relations at the University of South Carolina. He retired from his last post at USC as vice president of university advancement.
Herriott is the head of Roche Global Chemical Manufacturing. He serves as a board member of the South Carolina Board of Economic Advisors, the Palmetto Institute, New Carolina, Coker College, Allen University, South Carolina Research Authority and MUSC's Hollings Cancer Center Advisory Board. He also chairs the University of South Carolina Research Campus Foundation and co-chairs New Carolina's Education Task Force.
DeCenzo joined Coastal in 2002 when he was named dean of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration. He became provost in May 2006, and he will assume the position of president of the university on July 1, 2007. Before joining the Coastal faculty, DeCenzo served as director of partnership development in the College of Business and Economics at Towson University in Maryland. He earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Maryland College Park and a master's degree and Ph.D. from West Virginia University.