Red reign: Anne Kerr leaves deep legacy after 20 years as president of Florida Southern

Anne B. Kerr is ready to retire the red.

During her 20 years as president of Florida Southern College, Kerr became synonymous with the school’s dominant color, customarily donning scarlet-hued dresses and suits for all major events on the Lakeland campus.

Kerr, who officially retired Wednesday, said she planned to donate some of her many red outfits to an organization that supports women reentering the workforce.

“And I think I'll pick a new color,” she said.

She has apparently settled on pink — a relative of red but in gentler mode, befitting someone no longer responsible for directing approximately 800 employees and overseeing about 3,000 students.

Kerr has transformed Florida Southern College, both physically and in many other ways, during her two decades as the school’s 17^th president. Silviana Falcon, an associate professor of business at Florida Southern, has observed Kerr’s engagement with students since she arrived at the school in 2012.

Falcon quoted an aphorism to describe Kerr’s leadership: “A drop of water wears away the stone, not by force but by persistence.”

“She painted a compelling picture of excellence and connected us deeply to that vision, making us believe it was within our reach,” Falcon said in an email. “Under her guidance, we learned that true greatness is not a destination but a continuous journey of consistency, adaptation and resilience. Thanks to her, we didn’t just strive for greatness — we achieved it and continue to pursue it.”

Barney Barnett, a 1965 graduate of Florida Southern and a longtime member of the school’s board of directors, has closely observed Kerr’s influence on the college.

“I think her legacy is the school has progressed in many ways,” said Barnett, a retired Publix Super Markets executive. “We have many more students than when she came. We have much better buildings than when she came, much better teachers, staff. Everything's just better, and Lakeland’s blessed that Florida Southern is there on Lake Hollingsworth. A lot of people drive by there and see that pretty picture. It’s a wonderful job she’s done, and we appreciate all she has done.”

FSC's second-longest reign

Kerr came to Florida Southern in 2004 with ample administrative experience, having held executive roles at Rollins College and the University of Central Florida before serving as vice president for institutional advancement at the University of Richmond in Virginia. She succeeded Thomas L. Reuschling, taking over a private, liberal arts college that originated in 1883 and moved to Lakeland in 1922.

Jeremy Martin, 44, assumed his duties Thursday as president. He previously served as a top administrator at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia.

During Kerr’s tenure, the school’s visual presence along Lake Hollingsworth evolved dramatically, as twin, modern dormitories replaced dilapidated student housing and a row of academic buildings arose, their designs reflecting the legacy of older campus structures designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and bearing conspicuous elements of Moccasin red.

Guided by Kerr, Florida Southern launched the Barney Barnett School of Business and Free Enterprise, the first named school on campus, as well as new programs in nursing and physical therapy. New and replacement structures have sprouted, among them the Christoverson Humanities Building, the Becker Business Building, the France Admissions Center, the Carol Jenkins Barnett Center for Early Childhood Education and the Weinstein Computer Sciences Center, as well as — off campus — the Jean and Sal Campisi Sr. Academic Center for Physical Therapy, in the historic Dixieland neighborhood.

Kerr — universally addressed as “Dr. Kerr” on campus, for her doctorate from Florida State University — emphasized that the gleaming buildings are outfitted with the latest technology to create what she calls “an amazing living, learning campus.”

“I think, certainly, I've enjoyed that process of building and ensuring that we have a really great set of classrooms that support the highest standards of academic excellence,” said Kerr, who politely asked that her age not be published. “So I love that part.”

While Kerr’s emphasis is on academics and student life, she also recognized the value of Florida Southern’s status as holding the world’s largest collection of Wright-designed structures. She directed construction of the Usonian House, a visitor attraction derived from Wright’s unrealized plan for uniform faculty housing, and the Sharp Family Tourism and Education Center.

All that construction required considerable money, and Kerr is renowned for her capacity to persuade supporters of the school to write checks bearing plenty of digits. In May, Florida Southern held a gathering to celebrate its Believe Campaign, which generated $321 million over 20 years for new construction, renovations and endowments.

Kerr said that she prayed before every meeting with a potential benefactor.

“I think it all starts with the vision for what can be accomplished,” she said. “And all of our donors with whom I've had the greatest pleasure to work, all of them are mission driven. And if they're in agreement with our dreams for how to best serve students, I think it's the mission and the project that they find compelling.”

Barnett noted that Kerr had ample fundraising experience from her previous collegiate positions. Barnett, whose family has probably given more to the college than any other benefactors, fondly described her as “a good pickpocket.”

“It’s amazing that she stayed with us for 20 years,” Barnett said. “That's very unusual for college presidents to last that long at a college. We were certainly blessed to have her. I think Jeremy will be a good replacement, but nobody can replace Anne Kerr completely.”

Only one president of Florida Southern has served longer than Kerr: Ludd Spivey, who reigned from 1925 to 1957.

Finishing with flurry

Kerr closed her tenure with a pair of weighty announcements. One evening in May, she stood in the interior plaza of the Ordway Building, one of 13 Wright-designed structures on campus, and disclosed that Florida Southern would launch an undergraduate architecture program next year, with a graduate program to follow in 2028. Kerr, wearing her trademark red dress, thanked an anonymous benefactor for funding the program and praised Tracey Tedder, provost and vice president of academic affairs, for handling the academic details.

“I have wanted to do that since I came,” Kerr said. “It's a hard. It’s a heavy lift. … She (Tedder) just went after it step by step by step. And we do have an amazing benefactor who is underwriting this incredible initiative. So it all came into alignment here at the 11th hour.”

In her final month as president, Kerr revealed that Florida Southern had received a “transformational” donation from Nicholas Barnett and Ashley Gibson Barnett, creating an endowment for the renamed Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art at Florida Southern College. Kerr said she was “thrilled” to have the museum named for a former president of Florida Southern’s Student Government Association.

In discussing her presidency, Kerr mentions the increase in endowed professorships, the production of Fulbright Scholars, the high passing rate on entrance exams for nursing graduates and the 100% job placement rate for business school graduates. Florida Southern promotes its regional and national distinctions on its website and campus banners, such as its rankings by U.S. News & World Report among the best regional universities in the South and best for undergraduate teaching.

Above all, when she considers her accomplishments, Kerr emphasizes her attachment to the thousands of students she has encountered since 2004 at Florida Southern.

“I think, for me, it's the seeing the students prepared to achieve their dreams,” she said. “You know, during graduation, I always say it's one of the best times and the worst times. I see these students crossing the stage, and I know about what they want to do in the future — who's been admitted to graduate school, who got that great job. And so, I think their success is the number one accomplishment.”

Kerr said she sometimes sought the refuge of Annie Pfeiffer Chapel to ponder big decisions, but she drew inspiration from being among students.

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“So, I would go to the cafeteria or the bus stop or someplace like that to be in a group of students,” she said. “It's like taking a tonic, just absorbing all that energy and excitement and desire. I just love that part of it.”

Kerr recalled recently chatting with her husband, Roy, a close follower of politics, who talked about the anxious times the country is facing.

“And he said, 'you don't seem to be bothered by this, that and the other thing,’” she said. “And I said, ‘No, because I see the other side.’ I see all these great students going out and doing great things. So I guess it's given me this beautiful sense of — everything is going to be OK in our world because of them. That's a blessing — I mean, the greatest blessing.”

Keeping the connections

Falcon observed Kerr’s leadership style while serving multiple terms in the Faculty Senate, including a stint as chair in 2022-23. She used the word “constancy” to describe the example Kerr set.

“Being a faculty member, I can see that sometimes administrators lose that ability to connect with the students,” Falcon said. “They’re so focused into the horizon that a distance is created by default between the people who are doing the work and the receivers of that work and what they do. But she was very good at carving time and ensuring that she was with the students, that she knew them by name.”

Kerr spoke protectively of Florida Southern’s students. She cited the deadly mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007 as permanently changing the sense of safety on college campuses, and she pointed to the Campus Safety Officer Corps and a partnership with the Lakeland Police Department.

Kerr noted that the COVID pandemic had a lasting impact on students and their educations. She praised the college’s Office of Counseling Services.

“This is a generation that has anxieties and, I think, mental health impacts that we are attempting to address in just the best way possible for this age cohort,” she said.

The undergraduate student population remains fixed mostly in their late teens and early 20s year after year, while the college’s staff ages, including the president. Kerr said she still finds it easy to connect with students, though she did admit to a recent moment of recognition of how some might perceive her.

She was walking down the steps surrounding the Water Dome, the circular fountain designed by Wright, when a young man rushed forward and took her by the elbow to offer support.

“I just had to stop and laugh for a minute,” Kerr recalled. “And I thought, ‘Well, this is a sign. He’s so kind; he doesn't want me to tumble down these steps. But I must look like I'm on the verge of it.’ ”

Asked for her most cherished memories, Kerr’s first response might seem a surprise: traveling to Evansville, Indiana, in 2015 to watch the men’s basketball team defeat Indiana University of Pennsylvania for the school’s second Division II national championship.

“I have loved being our number one Mocs basketball fan,” she said. “So that was really, really fun.”

Life after retirement

Aside from trading her red outfits for pink, what are Kerr’s plans for life after the presidency?

Having been named President Emerita at Florida Southern, she plans to return in spring 2025 to teach a leadership course in the Barnett School of Business, based on the writings of Arthur Brooks, a popular author and public speaker and the college’s honorary chancellor for 2023.

Kerr has been invited to serve on the board of directors for the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, a Winter Park organization that oversees grants to nonprofits. She will also serve as a consultant for an education consortium that supports incoming college presidents.

And if so inclined, Kerr can literally ride off into the sunset. She owns a trio of Paso Fino horses and began riding in show competitions about a decade ago.

Her original horse, Bacardi, preceded Kerr in retiring, though she enjoys keeping him company in a pasture in South Lakeland.

“He has heard about the development of Florida Southern for about 15 years,” she said.

Her other horses, Magnolia and Miss America, remain ready for competition.

“They are better horses than I am a rider,” Kerr said. “So I've got a lot of work ahead.”

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Anne Kerr leaves rich legacy after 20 years as Florida Southern leader