President

BRYAN F. COKER became the Maryville College President on July 1, 2020, serving as only the 12th President in a history exceeding 200 years. The College’s Board of Directors issued Coker a new contract in mid-2022, securing his presidential tenure through 2027.

As President, Coker has set forth four primary areas of focus for the College:

  • Futureproofing the College, amidst the current realities of higher education;
  • Embracing our opportune and scenic location, as one of the world’s greatest learning laboratories;
  • Embracing a history and legacy of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as a call to action today; and
  • Embracing the liberal arts as the best preparation for both the everyday and for the unexpected.

Coker assumed office in July 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and despite that challenge, successfully led the College to a position of continued strength and stability. Exercising courageous leadership and guided by science, Maryville was the first college or university in Tennessee with a COVID-19 vaccination requirement and achieved the highest vaccination levels in the state.

Early in his presidency, Coker led efforts to retain the on-campus RT Lodge as a small, historic, and local establishment when external legal proceedings threatened the property. The Lodge, deeply connected with the College’s history, is now under outstanding local leadership and is thriving, with recent improvements such as the Morningside Room.

Coker has demonstrated strong support for the College’s athletic programs and among his earliest accomplishments was the implementation of a full-time Athletic Director model, as well as the hiring of Ben Fox from Centre College as head football coach. More recently, he played a leading role in efforts to establish the Collegiate Conference of the South and is now serving as the conference’s founding chair.

New academic programs have been introduced under Coker’s leadership, including the first graduate program in the College’s modern history – a Master of Arts in Teaching, focused on STEM education. Other new programs include majors in Environmental Science, as well as in Hospitality and Regional Identity.

As President, Dr. Coker has endeavored to make new strategic initiatives either “budget enhancing” or “budget neutral” for the College, by securing new dollars for such initiatives. Among the initiatives for which he has raised funds are two new positions: Executive Director of Strategic Initiatives and Director of Environmental and Sustainability Initiatives. Other such initiatives include the “Scots in the Smokies” program, the new Hospitality and Regional Identity major, a revamp of the College’s official logo and visual identity, and the establishment of the Greaser Alumni Center. Besides the Greaser Alumni Center, other campus improvements under Coker’s leadership have included the Cole Piper Memorial Track, a new soccer pitch, and various other building and infrastructure improvements across campus.

In summer 2022, Coker was the first Tennessee educator to publicly voice support for teachers in the state, following derogatory comments about teachers and teacher education programs. As noted in The Tennessean on July 5, 2022, “The first college to criticize the comments was Maryville College President Bryan F. Coker, who said Arnn’s (Larry Arnn, President of Hillsdale College) comments were ‘reckless, irresponsible and patently disrespectful to teachers and the field of education.’”

Prior to the Maryville presidency, Coker’s career was deeply focused on students and their experiences in higher education. He served as vice president and dean of students, as well as acting president, for Goucher College in Baltimore. Prior to Goucher, Coker was dean of students at Jacksonville University (Florida) for 10 years, and previously served in administration for the University of Tennessee, including as director of student judicial affairs.

While in Baltimore, Coker was also an affiliated faculty member at Morgan State University, a public HBCU, teaching master’s and doctoral courses in the College of Education and Urban Studies. He has been a peer evaluator for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools–Commission on Colleges and for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

Coker is a member of Class IX of Leadership Tennessee, and he has served on various non-profit boards, including as co-founder, president, and a host parent for Solace for the Children–Jacksonville, a humanitarian peace-building organization that brought children from Afghanistan to Florida for life-changing medical care. He is an ordained elder and liturgist in the Presbyterian Church (USA) and is currently a member of New Providence Presbyterian Church in Maryville.

Originally from Western North Carolina, Coker received his B.A. from Rhodes College, is a member of the College’s Hall of Fame, and was previously recognized as Rhodes’s first-ever Young Alumnus of the Year. He holds an M.Ed. from the University of South Carolina, and a Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee

Coker is married to Rhodes classmate Sara Barnette Coker, who also holds a B.A. from Rhodes, as well as an M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee. She previously worked in healthcare administration and served in non-profit leadership. The Cokers have four children, including a daughter at Maryville College and three sons who attend Maryville City Schools. The Coker family resides near campus, in Maryville’s Oak Park Historic District.

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