Contact: Tom Bradbury
(404) 879-5544
Released: 8/1/2005

David Spence succeeds Mark Musick as president of the Southern Regional Education Board

David S. Spence has succeeded Mark Musick as president of the Southern Regional Education Board.

Spence, whose appointment was announced in January, is a former vice president of SREB and most recently was executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer of the California State University System.

Musick, who was named President Emeritus by the SREB Board at its recent meeting in New Orleans, is retiring after 30 years at SREB, the last 16 as president.

Dave Spence's career has included several state-level leadership positions in SREB states, and he was a member of the SREB staff on two occasions, including service as vice president for educational policies in the mid-1980s. He has been executive director of the Florida Postsecondary Education Planning Commission, executive vice chancellor for the University System of Georgia, and executive vice chancellor and vice chancellor for academic programs at the State University System of Florida. For the past six years, he has been executive vice chancellor and chief academic officer of the California State University System (which enrolled 408,000 students in 2003-2004).

The Southern Regional Education Board, headquartered in Atlanta, was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislatures to help leaders in education and government work cooperatively to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region. The SREB's Challenge to Lead Goals for Education assert that SREB states can lead the nation in educational progress. SREB has 16 member states: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia. Each state is represented by its governor and four gubernatorial appointees.