Dr. Paula Myrick Short

Paula Myrick Short is Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for the Tennessee Board of Regents. As Chief Academic Officer, the Vice Chancellor has major systemwide responsibilities for the 13 community colleges and 6 universities including approval of new academic programs and supervision of initiatives in strategic planning, institutional effectiveness, student learning, program coordination, transfer  and articulation. She provides leadership and support for the Regents Online Degree Program, Institutional Assessment and Research, P-16 Council and for faculty development. During her tenure as Vice Chancellor, Dr. Short has provided leadership in the establishment of the Master's of Science in Nursing and the Master’s in Education degrees through the Regents Online Degree Program; established the Regents Academic Leadership Institute to provide leadership development opportunities for department chairs and unit heads; led the Board of Regents involvement in Tennessee EPSCoR through the National Science Foundation; and introduced and implemented the Academic Audit quality process within the Board of Regents institutions. Her vision for establishing local P-16 Councils has led to a major effort statewide to improve education thorough partnerships among key players in communities in Tennessee. She is leading the redesign of teacher education in the TBR universities as part of the Tennessee Teaching Quality Initiative.

Dr. Short serves on the Advisory Board of the Emerging Technologies Life Sciences Center, a joint initiative among Cumberland Pharmaceuticals and Vanderbilt University; the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Institute of Public Health; the National Advisory Board for the School of Education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro; and was appointed by Tennessee House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh to the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Technology Development Corporation. In addition, she is a member of the International Board of the Chair Academy, the National Advisory Council of the American Student Association of Community Colleges; serves as a member of the Educational Testing Service Higher Education Advisory Board, and serves as Commissioner on the National Commission for the Advancement of Educational Leadership Preparation. She has been honored by the Chair Academy with its 2009 Paul Elsner International Excellence in Leadership Award.

Prior to coming to the Tennessee Board of Regents, Dr. Short served as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs for the University of Missouri System. Prior to that, she was Department Chair of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri-Columbia. There, she led the development and implementation of the innovative statewide Ed.D. in Educational Leadership involving the collaboration of 6 Missouri universities, and led the department to its first ever ranking (15th) in the US News and World Report. Dr. Short has held tenure at the University of Missouri-Columbia, The Pennsylvania State University, and Auburn University. She currently is a tenured professor at Tennessee State University.

Dr. Short received her Ph.D. in Administration in the Department of Organizational Development and Institutional Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A nationally recognized scholar and researcher in the field of educational administration, she was chosen as the recipient of the 1993 Jack A. Culbertson Award, given nationally to an outstanding professor of educational administration for research excellence. She has published over 125 scholarly articles, books, book chapters, and technical reports and has made over 125 national and international scholarly presentations. Her newest book, which she co-authored with William Massy and Steve Graham, is titled Academic Quality Work. She also has secured over $2.3 million for research and programmatic initiatives. Dr. Short has mentored and graduated 24 doctoral students, some of whom are professors in academe. She has served as president of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration, the Southern Regional Council on Education Administration and the University Council for Educational Administration, and served as a member of the Washington-based National Policy Board for Educational Administration.