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Dr. Nelson Marquez Is New Webber International University President

Selected by Board of Directors After Serving as Interim President

Webber International University, located just south of Lake Wales near Crooked Lake, has a new president and CEO following action by the school's board of directors. Dr. Nelson Marquez was named during the semi-annual meeting of the Board of Trustees on December 1, when the board unanimously approved the appointment of Dr. Marquez effective that date.

Dr. Marquez replaces Dr. H. Keith Wade who has served as the University's President/CEO since 2008. Dr. Marquez had served as president in an interim capacity for several months, guiding the university through what was described as "a challenging transitional period." He worked with task forces on the campus of WIU as well as its branch campus, St. Andrews University in North Carolina.

Dr. Marquez presided over the October ribbon cutting of a new suite of classrooms dedicated to Health Sciences on the Babson Park campus.

The new Health Sciences Center will serve the school's young nursing program, which received accreditation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and the Florida Board of Nursing in late 2021, and began teaching in 2022.

"I am truly honored to be given the opportunity to write new and exciting chapters for Webber and our branch campus, St. Andrews University, side-by-side with its faculty, staff, and students," Dr. Marquez said in a statement issued by the university. "I believe that the Office of the President exists to serve..,and I intend to do just that...to be of service to the University's constituents."

The statement issued by the board expressed its "full confidence in Dr. Marquez's commitment, vision, and ability to lead both campuses into a stable and prosperous future."

According to the statement, Dr. Marquez will be sharing more of his vision for the success of Webber and St. Andrews in the coming days and months as Webber International University approaches its Centennial Anniversary in 2027.  The school was founded in 1927 by Roger Babson as the first college chartered under Florida's then new charitable and educational laws. It was only the ,nation's second school of business for women,

Webber's campuses in Babson Park, and Laurinburg, NC offers associates, bachelors, and masters level degrees through traditional day, accelerated night and weekend, and entirely online formats.

The University features highly qualified faculty, highly engaged staff, small class size, and a wide array of intercollegiate sports and other extracurricular activities. The University has been recognized as a US News and World Reports Best Regional Colleges: South, a Princeton Review Best Southeastern College, has earned Petersons' top marks for academics, value and community, and has been designated a Military Friendly School. The University is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, and numerous programs have earned additional programmatic accreditations.

St. Andrews University, which became a branch campus in 2011, is an historically Presbyterian, comprehensive liberal arts school tracing its roots back to 1896.

 

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