Webber International University's President Dr. H. Keith Wade elected to SACSCOC Executive Council and Chair of the Commission's Florida Delegation
Babson Park, FL (12/08/2020) — At its annual meeting concluding December 8th, 2020, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) elected Dr. H. Keith Wade a member of its Executive Council and the Chair of its Florida Delegation. The SACSCOC website describes its thirteen member Executive Council as "the executive arm of the Board of Trustees with primary responsibility for interpreting Commission policy and procedure. It also functions on behalf of the Board between sessions."
The SACSCOC website describes the Commission as "the recognized regional accrediting body in the eleven U.S. Southern states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia) and in Latin America for those institutions of higher education that award associate, baccalaureate, master's or doctoral degrees."
Wade is the President & CEO of Webber International University, a private, not-for-profit, SACSCOC accredited university headquartered in Babson Park, Florida. Established in 1896, Webber has campuses in Babson Park, FL (residential); Charleston, SC (opening January 2021); Charlotte, NC; Columbia, SC (opening January 2021); Laurinburg, NC (residential); Miami Lakes, FL; Pinehurst, NC; and West Palm Beach, FL, and also offers entirely online degrees at the associates, bachelors, and masters levels. The university operates as St. Andrews University in the Carolinas.
After a career as a C-level executive in the areas of finance and operations management, and with nearly a decade of experience teaching MBA finance, operations management, and logistics courses as a part-time adjunct instructor, Wade joined Webber in 2003 as Assistant Professor of Marketing. He became the University's Accreditation Liaison in 2004. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2005, Academic Dean in 2006, Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer in 2007, and President & CEO in 2008. Wade holds bachelors (magna cum laude), masters, and doctoral degrees in Management. He holds advanced graduate professional certifications (post-doctoral certifications) in Marketing and International Business. He is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA), Certified in Financial Management (CFM), and is a Six Sigma Lean Black Belt (LBBP).
Wade was first elected to the SACSCOC Board of Trustees in December of 2018 and has since been serving on one of its Committees on Compliance and Reports, which SACSCOC describes as "responsible for reviewing the findings of visiting committees and making recommendations to the total Board concerning the accreditation status of institutions." Wade also serves on the Board of Examiners of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation's highest Presidential award for performance excellence.
Said Wade, "as a student, parent, professor, senior executive in higher education, and as a practitioner, consultant, and advocate of systemic performance excellence, SACSCOC accreditation has always seemed to me to be the 'gold standard' of quality for institutions of higher education. It's been my pleasure to serve in a variety of roles over the last decade and I'm honored to have been elected to serve in this role."
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Dr. H. Keith Wade, President & CEO of Webber International University