W. Joseph King
Lyon College of Batesville will inaugurate W. Joseph King, Ph.D., as its 18th president at 2 p.m. April 20 in Couch Garden on campus.
The ceremony will not only welcome the private college’s new leader but also celebrate the accomplishments he has achieved since taking office on July 1.
King has worked with the faculty and staff to produce a new strategic plan for Lyon’s future; developed a new recruitment model; increased retention; established more summer courses for students; and built a new, larger digital network.
He also led the college’s movement toward being a pet-friendly campus; created several new faculty positions in subjects of higher need; and added four new varsity sports and four club sports.
The inauguration will include a march to Couch Garden led by the Lyon College Pipe Band. The Presbytery of Arkansas, the Synod of the Sun, delegates and guests from other colleges and universities, the class of 2018, staff, faculty and the board of trustees will follow.
Perry Wilson, chair of the Lyon Board, and Phil Baldwin, vice chair, will inaugurate him. Eugene Tobin, Ph.D., with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, will deliver the inaugural address.
Before coming to Lyon, King was senior advisor to the president of Emory & Henry College in Virginia, vice president of innovation at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, and a research scientist at the University of Washington’s Human Interface Technology Laboratory.
He has also served as executive director of Connexions at Rice University. Connexions is the prominent open education system that began the massive open online courses movement. King was executive director of the National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education.
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