Tennessee Voices, Episode 243: Candice McQueen, president, Lipscomb University

David Plazas, Nashville Tennessean
·2 min read

As the new president of Lipscomb University, Candice McQueen says she has been spending a lot of time listening to people in the community.

Their input will help inform and guide the institution's work as it seeks to be a national leader in Christian education, she told me on this episode of the Tennessee Voices podcast.

Lipscomb is home for McQueen who previously served as a faculty member and education school dean before spending four years as former Gov. Bill Haslam's education commissioner.

Candice McQueen, chairwoman, department of education for Lipscomb University, has been named new education dean at the university.
Candice McQueen, chairwoman, department of education for Lipscomb University, has been named new education dean at the university.

We talked about the lessons she learned from her service to the state as well as her concerns about how the politics of the days sometimes prevents comprehensive conversations on important issues.

Another topic we discussed was Lipscomb's recent initiative to develop rural leaders across the state. Tennessee is mostly rural geographically and many of these have seen not seen the prosperity that urban counterparts, such as, Nashville, Memphis, Knoxville and Chattanooga have experienced.

Recently, McQueen participated in a roundtable of five college presidents at Belmont University where they discussed collaboration and community engagement. We talked about her vision for sustaining that cooperation in the long term.

Op-Ed by Candice McQueen: These are four ways the state of education in Tennessee is changing

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The Tennessee Voices videocast is a 20-minute program, which started in March 2020 and invites leaders, thinkers and innovators who have written guest columns for a USA TODAY Network Tennessee publication to share their insights and wisdom with me and our viewers.

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David Plazas is the director of opinion and engagement for the USA TODAY Network Tennessee and an editorial board member of The Tennessean. Tweet to him at @davidplazas.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Listening to people to serve educational needs with Candice McQueen