After two decades at the helm of Florida Southern College, Anne Kerr will be stepping down as president this year.
Kerr, 69, announced her decision to the college’s board of trustees on Friday.
“It has been an honor and great blessing to serve as president of what I consider to be the finest small college in the nation,” she said in a news release.
Kerr became the college’s 17th president on June 1, 2004. Under her leadership, FSC reached the highest enrollment in its history with 3,300 students, added 22 new buildings and expanded or restored 20 others, including many designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Kerr led the “Believe Campaign” which raised $308 million. Other achievements during her tenure include:
- The Barney Barnett School of Business and Free Enterprise was created in 2011 and is accredited by AACSB.
- A nationally accredited doctor of physical therapy degree program was launched in 2019.
- The accredited Ann Blanton Edwards School of Nursing was named in 2021.
- FSC became affiliated with the Polk Museum of Art in 2017. It is now the Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College, hosting the college’s art history and museum studies program, and is undergoing a $6 million expansion.
- The Roberts Academy at Florida Southern College was founded in 2010 as the only transitional school in Florida for talented second through eighth grade students with dyslexia serving not only the students and their parents, but providing exceptional training for the college’s education majors.
- The Hollingsworth Scholarship Program was funded to help recruit stellar students by covering all expenses for tuition, room, board and travel abroad.
- FSC was named a top producer of Fulbright scholars by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
- The faculty now has 27 endowed professorships funded across many academic disciplines.
- The FSC Athletic Department has won six national championships and now is one of the top three Division II programs in the nation.
- The college was named the sixth “most beautiful campus” in the nation by Princeton Review.
- FSC received the William B. Burke Award for experiential education in 2010. It is the highest honor bestowed upon a college or university by the National Society for Experiential Education.
- FSC was named the top Christian college in Florida in 2022 by EdSmart.
“It is difficult to adequately express the depth of our gratitude for President Kerr’s two decades of unswerving service to Florida Southern College,” said Robert Fryer, chairman of the board. “The profound impact she has made on the College will ensure an even brighter future than we could have envisioned. Her visionary leadership and dedication are unparalleled.”
Fryer said a national search for a new president will begin this month. He is leading the search committee, which is comprised of trustees. Kerr will continue as president until her successor is installed.
Prior to coming to Florida Southern, Kerr was the vice president for institutional advancement at the University of Richmond, vice president at Rollins College and assistant dean at the University of Central Florida.
She is married to Dr. Roy Kerr, and the couple have one son, Edward B. Kerr, an attorney residing in Lakeland.
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