Dr. Horner Transition

March 20, 2018

To the Jacksonville University Community:

It is with appreciation and respect that I inform our campus community today that I have granted Provost Donnie Horner his request to step down, effective June 1, and return to full time professorial duties in our Davis College of Business. Dr. Horner’s request centers on his desire to reduce his administrative responsibilities in order to better care for, and be more accessible to, his aging parents, who reside in Pennsylvania. Under our current plan, Dr. Horner will be on sabbatical for the Fall 2018 semester, we will name an interim Provost in April to transition and take the position in May/June, and a national search will be conducted in 2019.

Donnie has been a true ambassador for our University, a well-recognized leader in the Jacksonville community for nearly a decade, and his service to JU has been exemplary. He joined us in June 2009 as a full Professor of Leadership in the Davis College of Business, and subsequently accepted a unique two-year assignment from June 2011 – June 2013 as the Jacksonville’s inaugural Education Commissioner, a cabinet level appointment in the Office of Mayor Alvin Brown. While completing his City of Jacksonville duties, he maintained his faculty status, teaching a full load of graduate business courses. Dr. Horner then returned to JU to become our first Government and Community Affairs Officer. In that role, he was instrumental in helping secure support for our Florida EPIC (Entrepreneurism, Policy, Innovation, Commerce) Program from the Florida State Legislature and Governor Rick Scott.

In June 2014, Dr. Horner became our Director of Athletics and assumed responsibility for JU’s nearly 500 student-athletes and all NCAA Division I sports. In his two years in the role, Dr. Horner helped transform the organization as JU teams won numerous individual and team championships, while earning a collective 3.13 GPA, with 18 of 20 teams exceeding a 3.0 GPA. During this period, he again maintained his graduate teaching load in the Davis College of Business.

Dr. Horner accepted appointment to Provost in June 2016. During his time as Provost, overall student retention and graduation rates have increased, enrollments have improved, and the University has continued to attract high quality, talented faculty. Some of his notable leadership achievements include:

• Establishing our Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.
• Improving mid-term grade reporting to 95% in Spring 2018.
• Expanding international educational experiences for students – both study abroad and traditional resident overseas education, with a host of institutional partners.
• Helping create a JU-based English Language Program (ELP), while substantially increasing international enrollments.
• Concluding more than 20 agreements with international partners, deepening JU’s reach in the global educational community.
• Launching “OCEARCH at Jacksonville University” in February 2017, an initiative which has placed JU on the world stage for student-centric marine science education, while coupling a global leader in shark and oceanographic research with a premier academic home.
• Opening “JU Downtown” at the Sun Trust Building in October, 2017 through a $275,000 grant from Jacksonville’s Downtown Investment Authority (DIA).
• Crafting an agreement with WJCT, the Beijing Film Academy, and the DIA to secure funding to place JU’s film program at the downtown studios of WJCT, attracting more than 50 Chinese undergraduate film students to the University and downtown Jacksonville each semester, starting in January 2019.
• Securing funding to establish the University’s first “Cuba Scholar-in-Residence,” a new faculty position dedicated to expanding curricular, study abroad, and faculty research opportunities in Cuba.
• Championing the creation of the JU Graduate School, the design and structure of which is now being considered by a committee composed of faculty and staff.

Dr. Horner arrived at JU from the U.S. Naval Academy, where he served as the Class of '61 Endowed Chair and the Distinguished Professor of Leadership Education in the Department of Leadership, Ethics, and Law. While at the Academy, he had a joint appointment with the graduate school at the University of Maryland – College Park. From 2000-2005, Dr. Horner served as an Associate Professor and Director of the Engineering Leadership Development Minor, a program director / department head position in the School of Engineering Design, Technology, and Professional Programs in the College of Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania. While at Penn State, he also held courtesy appointments in the Department of Sociology and the Science, Technology, and Society Program. He was a faculty affiliate, leadership program director, and member of the admissions committee at the Schreyer Honors College.

Dr. Horner’s military service included duties as the transportability engineer for the AH-64 / Apache helicopter project, and work as researcher at the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. Dr. Horner was appointed by Secretary of Defense Les Aspin to serve on President Bill Clinton’s Joint Military Working Group Investigating Sexual Orientation and Military Service in 1993.  He also worked as a futurist on the “Army After Next / Army 2020 Project” in 1997. Dr. Horner served on the faculty in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at West Point from 1992-1994. As an Army officer, Horner commanded units at the Platoon, Company, and Battalion levels. He served extensively overseas, including duty during conflict in Panama and Bosnia.

Dr. Horner has represented Jacksonville University exceptionally well in the community. He has served on numerous boards, including the Jacksonville Children’s Commission, the Jacksonville Youth Crisis Center, and the Baptist Beaches Medical Center. He was recognized by the Jacksonville Business Journal at its inaugural “Veterans of Influence” awards in 2014 and by the Jacksonville University Chapter of Beta Gamma Sigma International Honor Society for Collegiate Schools of Business as an Honorary Member and Chapter Inductee in 2017.

Please join me in thanking Dr. Horner for his leadership in serving as Provost, and for his years of dedicated service to our University. We offer Donnie and his wife, Donell, our continued best wishes during this transition.

Sincerely,

Tim Cost
President
Jacksonville University
Class of 1981