Todd Parrish has been tapped to serve in a new role as Associate Vice President for Institutional Advancement at Welch College, according to David Williford, Vice President for Institutional Advancement. In this role he will continue his work in major gifts acquisition and church relations but will begin working alongside David Williford, Vice President for Institutional Advancement, in the overall administration of fundraising and external relations at Welch.
Before assuming his current role in January of 2018, Parrish served as Senior Pastor of First Free Will Baptist Church, Washington, North Carolina. A North Carolina native who ministered in churches in North and South Carolina for 26 years, Parrish has served in a number of denominational roles, including Assistant Moderator of the North Carolina State Association of Free Will Baptists and Vice President of the Welch College Alumni Association.
“This is a great move for the college,” Williford said. “Todd is an invaluable member of the Institutional Advancement team. His efforts have resulted in remarkable success in fundraising and public relations. He loves Welch College and her mission, and he gives himself untiringly to advance the cause of Christian higher education among Free Will Baptists.”
Parrish was ordained under the ministry of Dr. Malcolm C. Fry. A 1989 Welch graduate, he obtained his M.A. in Mental Health Counseling from Webster University in 2010 and his M.A. in Theology and Ministry from Welch in 2018. He is nearing the completion of his doctorate in educational ministry at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is writing his doctoral thesis on the advancement and fundraising function of Welch College.
Welch President Matt Pinson said, “I’m so excited to get Todd Parrish into this new role to assume more leadership for “friend-raising” and fundraising at Welch. When he came to the college, I knew he’d succeed in these two roles, and he has shown himself to be stellar at both. His love for Welch runs deep, and he’s known for his strong work ethic and can-do spirit. It’s a joy to see him taking a more expansive leadership role in Advancement.”
Parrish and his wife, Merinda, Welch’s Clinical Coordinator for Teacher Education, have two married daughters, Emily Vickery (Zach) and Ellen Stox (Kevin), both Welch graduates, and two grandchildren, Lucy and Jack.
At its last meeting, the Welch College Board of Trustees unanimously approved significant changes in the president’s leadership team, according to President Matt Pinson. “We’ve made some important changes to facilitate strategic growth for the college in its new Sumner County environment,” Pinson said. “These changes also posture the college for growth well into the future, as they involve gifted younger members of the faculty.” The transition will occur on June 1, the beginning of the 2017-18 fiscal year.
“There’s a pressing need to free up more of Dr. Greg Ketteman’s time to work on strategic growth initiatives now that we’re in our new environment as the only four-year residential college in Sumner County,” Pinson said. New initiatives planned on the new campus include the relaunching of an (evening) adult studies program; addition of more online degrees; initiation of master’s degrees in Christian leadership, teaching, and educational administration; and articulation of agreements with area colleges and universities creating new ways to earn baccalaureate degrees in nursing, ease of transfer to Welch, and outreach to Christian high schools and the homeschool community.
“With his outstanding leadership skills, the respect he has gained in the academic community, and his ability just to get things done, Dr. Greg Ketteman is uniquely qualified to lead the kind of strategic growth initiatives we need in our new setting here in Sumner County,” Pinson explained. “Making these changes will free up his time to work on such initiatives for the future growth of the college and enable a number of younger leaders to exercise their gifts at the college.”
These changes involve the following personnel:
Dr. P. Greg Ketteman will transition to the role of Vice President for Strategic Initiatives, Dean of Graduate and Adult Studies, and Distinguished Professor of Education. Ketteman, who was born in South Carolina and reared in Nashville, Tennessee, has served as Provost at Welch College for the past eleven years. Before that he served on the Welch Board of Trustees for four years. Known widely in Free Will Baptist circles as an active lay church leader and music minister, Ketteman graduated from Welch in 1977 with a B.S. in Teacher Education. He went on to earn M.Ed. and Ed.D. degrees in educational leadership from Middle Tennessee State University and Tennessee State University, respectively, and also underwent significant graduate studies in the field of public administration. Before coming to Welch, he enjoyed a distinguished three-decade career in Metro Nashville Public Schools, the first half of that time as a teacher and the second half as a principal. Ketteman and his wife of 40 years, Jill, who has served at Welch since 1998 and currently works in the Financial Aid Office, have two grown children, Jack and Emilee, and five grandchildren.
Dr. Matthew J. McAffee will become Welch’s Provost. A native of New Brunswick, Canada, McAffee was originally ordained in the Atlantic Canada Free Will Baptist Association. He served as a part-time faculty member from 2003-2006 and pastored Lewisburg Free Will Baptist Church, before going back to graduate school. He returned to Welch in 2010 to teach biblical studies and biblical languages and also served as campus pastor and program coordinator for Theological Studies. A graduate of Welch College (B.A.), Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div.), and the University of Chicago (M.A., Ph.D.), McAffee has written a number of scholarly and popular articles in journals such as the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, and the Journal of the American Oriental Society. He recently co-authored Sexuality, Gender, and the Church(Welch College Press) and is author of Life and Mortality in Ugaritic: A Lexical and Literary Study(Eisenbrauns, forthcoming) and co-author of Going Deeper with Old Testament Hebrew: An Intermediate Study of the Grammar and Syntax of the Old Testament (B&H Academic, forthcoming). He will continue to teach Bible and biblical language courses while fulfilling his new administrative duties. McAffee lives on campus with his wife Anna, who serves as women’s resident director at Welch, and their four children, Abigail, Lydia, Samuel, and Marianne.
Dr. Kevin L. Hester has been named Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness and will maintain his role as Dean of the School of Theology. A graduate of Welch, Dr. Hester holds an M.Div. from Covenant Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Saint Louis University and has written a number of books and articles, including, Eschatology and Pain in the Theology of Gregory the Great. Dr. Hester has a strong reputation in the Christian higher education accreditation community, having served on numerous accreditation teams for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and the Commission on Accreditation of the Association for Biblical Higher Education (ABHE). He serves as a commissioner on the ABHE Commission on Accreditation and also serves on the editorial board of the ABHE Journal. In his new role he will teach, oversee both undergraduate and graduate divisions of the School of Theology, and serve as the planning and accreditation liaison for the college. He and his wife Leslie have four sons, Spencer, Seth, Justin, and Jackson. His oldest son Spencer is a student at Welch.
Matthew Steven Bracey will transition to the role of Vice Provost for Academic Administration. Bracey has served four years as Registrar at Welch. Originally from Ashland City, Tennessee, he graduated from Cumberland School of Law at Samford University (Juris Doctor) and also holds a B.A. in history from Welch and a master’s degree in theology from Beeson Divinity School at Samford. A Ph.D. student in Ethics and Public Policy at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, he has written widely, serving as co-author and editor of Sexuality, Gender, and the Church (Welch College Press) and co-editor of The Promise of Arminian Theology (Randall House Academic). He is also a managing editor at the Helwys Society Forum (TheHSF.com). Bracey will continue teaching courses in law, history, and theology and serving as managing editor of Welch College Press. His wife Sarah, a licensed professional counselor, is currently completing her doctorate in counselor education and supervision and serves as adult studies liaison, staff counselor, and adjunct instructor in psychology at Welch.
“These are exciting times of transition for Welch College,” Pinson remarked. “These changes will make strategic growth possible but will also facilitate preparation of current faculty for future leadership at Welch. I ask our college family to join me in prayer for these leaders and for this process.”
Welch College Vice Provost Matthew McAffee has been selected as a Fellow in the Executive Leadership Institute of the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association (TICUA), according to President Matt Pinson. The Executive Leadership Institute is a new initiative of TICUA president Dr. Claude Presnell to provide specialized training for up-and-coming leaders in Tennessee independent colleges and universities.
“I am excited that Dr. McAffee will be taking part in this new institute,” President Pinson said. “As a promising young leader at Welch and our new Vice Provost, he will benefit greatly from the interaction with some of the finest higher education leaders in the industry and will be able to bring these experiences to bear in his leadership at Welch College.”
Speaking of the first session of the institute, which was held at Rhodes College in Memphis, Presnell said, “It was an incredible success! The Fellows were hosted by Rhodes College president Bill Troutt for the two-day event. During this first Session we provided the Fellows with their personalized leadership assessment profile, explored the ‘thriving leaders’ framework, and dug deep into the Institute’s first topic of institutional governance and board development.”
Faculty for the Institute have included distinguished higher education leaders such as Dr. Rich Morrill (chancellor of the University of Richmond), Dr. Bill Troutt (president of Rhodes College), and Tim Fuller (senior VP/owner, CREDO). The Institute will gather at nine different independent college and university campuses across Tennessee, once a month, over the 2016-17 academic year. The last meeting and graduation from the Institute will be in May of 2017.
A native of New Brunswick, Canada, McAffee is a 1999 graduate of Welch College. An M.Div. graduate of Southern Seminary, he received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from University of Chicago. He has served full-time at Welch since 2010, teaching as well as serving as Campus Pastor, a role he gave up in August to serve as Vice Provost.
McAffee has written numerous articles in popular and scholarly periodicals such as ONE Magazine, the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, and the Journal of Biblical Literature. He recently jointly authored the Welch College Press book, Sexuality, Gender, and the Church: A Christian Response in the New Cultural Landscape. He and his wife, Anna, who serves as women’s resident director at Welch, live on-campus with their four children, Abigail, Lydia, Samuel, and Marianne.
