ANNE B. KERR

PRESIDENT EMERITA, FLORIDA SOUTHERN COLLEGE, LAKELAND

After serving as president of FSC for the past two decades, Kerr retired at the end of the 2023-2024 academic year. Founded in 1883, FSC is the oldest private college in Florida, with about 3,200 students and more than 800 employees. It has a strong liberal arts core, with professional programs in education, business, nursing and physical therapy, and this year will launch an architecture program. As president of the Polk Museum of Art Board, Kerr led the initiative to make it a Smithsonian-affiliated museum. Earlier this year, the school, which boasts the only campus designed by legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright, announced a new architecture school. Looking back over her career, Kerr says one of the most valuable lessons she’s learned, “although not a welcome one, is that I cannot accomplish all that I can envision for the future of Florida Southern College. The past president of Rollins College, the late Dr. Rita Bornstein, told me that I would one day arrive at this realization. … I admit that Rita was correct. However, I am transitioning this outlook from regret to possibility as I look forward to all that my successor can accomplish in the future.”