Lee University is led by an independent Board of Directors, who meet five times every two years with the president to conduct university business. This board serves to:

• Appoint and supervise the president
• Provide guidance and vision for future development of Lee’s programs and facilities.
• Approve the appointment of all faculty and administrative personnel.
• Ratify official actions concerning ongoing operations at Lee University, including an annual budget.

Board members include individuals who are active in business, professional life, and church ministry. Most of the members are Lee alumni; all are appointed for two-year terms. Board meetings usually include a non-voting representative of the sponsoring denomination. Meetings are called and moderated by the board chairperson, who along with other officers is elected by the board biennially. The current chair (2022-) is Wade Lombard, of Texas; vice chair is Clayton Watson of Minnesota.

Members of the Board of Directors may be contacted through the Office of the President at (423) 614-8600.

Dr. Charles Paul Conn 
Chancellor

Dr. Charles Paul Conn has dedicated more than five decades of his professional life to Lee University, shaping its identity and trajectory more than any other individual in its history. After serving as president for 34 years (1986–2020), he transitioned to chancellor, a role he held for nearly four years before serving one additional year (2024–2025) as both president and chancellor.

Under Conn’s leadership, Lee University experienced extraordinary growth in enrollment, academic offerings, campus development, and national reputation. During his presidency, the university’s enrollment and campus size increased fivefold, the annual operating budget grew tenfold, and more than 30 major construction projects were completed. He launched Lee’s first graduate and doctoral programs and introduced hallmark initiatives such as Global Perspectives and Service Learning.

Conn earned his PhD in psychology from Emory University in 1974, following undergraduate studies at Lee College and Georgia State University and the completion of a master’s degree at Emory. He later spent three years at Harvard University as a postdoctoral student in the Graduate School of Education, where he studied with several distinguished scholars, including Lawrence Kohlberg (1978), David Breneman (1993), Derek Bok (1998), Suarez Orozco (2003), Robert Kegan (2008), Rick Weissbourd (2013), and Nancy Hill (2018). In addition, he served as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Divinity School in 1982.

He began his Lee career in 1971 as a psychology instructor, eventually serving as department chair, vice president, and full professor. Along the way, he authored more than 20 books—four of which were New York Times bestsellers.

Throughout his career, Conn has received numerous honors, including the M.C. Headrick Award as the outstanding CEO in the Cleveland/Bradley region—the only time it has been awarded to a nonprofit leader—and the Otis Floyd Award for excellence in higher education leadership in Tennessee. He has served on governing boards for many national and regional academic organizations, including the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, the Council for Independent Colleges, and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

Conn and his wife, Darlia McLuhan Conn, have three children and ten grandchildren, many of whom are also Lee alumni.

Few individuals have had as much personal, consistent investment in the lives of Lee students and employees as Dr. Charles Paul Conn.

Dr. Conn assumed the new role of President and Chancellor on May 5, 2024, after an inspiring tenure as President that lasted exactly 34 years and a subsequent term of nearly four years as Chancellor. Dr. Conn, along with his wife Darlia McLuhan Conn, led the university through a transformative period in the 80’s and 90’s, maintaining Lee’s institutional momentum into the new millennium and beyond the school’s 2018 centennial. At the point of his transition to Chancellor, Conn was the longest currently-serving university president in Tennessee, and his length of service is among the 70 longest tenures by a college president in U.S. history.

After graduating from Lee College in 1967, Conn earned a PhD at Emory University and returned to Lee as a psychology instructor in 1971. Within the next 15 years, Conn received the school's top award for "Excellence in Teaching,” served two post-doctoral appointments at Harvard University, chaired the Department of Behavioral Sciences, served as Vice President of Institutional Advancement, and authored or co-authored more than 20 books about various public, business, and ministry leaders. Four of these books reached the New York Times bestseller list, and three were adapted for television.

Dr. Conn's leadership at Lee was characterized by revolutionary expansion alongside a determination to remain true to its original core values. He won numerous awards during his tenure and served on the governing boards of many national and regional higher education organizations, including the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Council for Independent Colleges. In that time, the school grew explosively in size, quality, reputation, and reach, with enrollment and physical campus size increasing fivefold, 30 building projects, a tenfold increase in operating budget, and status as one of Cleveland, Tennessee’s largest employers.

Dr. Conn also oversaw dramatic expansion of curriculum at Lee, quadrupling the number of undergraduate degree programs offered, launching Lee’s first master and doctoral level programs, and initiating a host of initiatives such as global perspectives and service learning, each now an integral part of the Lee experience.

Amidst such change, the values of Christ-centered excellence and a focus on students remained, as seen by the close relationship Lee has with its sponsoring denomination, the success of graduates in myriad fields of expertise, and Conn’s own reputation with students on campus for openness and approachability. As perhaps the most poignant evidence of the incalculable impact of Dr. Conn’s work at Lee, during his initial tenure as President, he personally conferred 21,420 degrees to graduates of Lee’s myriad programs.

Even after serving full-time on the Lee campus for some fifty years, Dr. Conn retains a love for college students and particularly seeing them grow through the Lee University experience. It is a love that shines through in whatever role he has held at Lee, be it faculty or administrative.

Dr. and Mrs. Conn have three grown children, who, along with their spouses, are all graduates of Lee. The Conns also have 10 grandchildren, six of whom have graduated from Lee, so far.

Presidential History

For over 100 years, Lee has been developing leaders with the guiding perspective of a life centered on Christ. From its inception as Bible Training School in 1918 to its adoption of the name Lee College in 1947 and Lee University in 1997, our school has been led by individuals committed to a task with one goal in mind, helping young, earnest learners discover what they can become and what contributions they can make in a complex world. Below is a glimpse of our presidents, people who have led the way in such exciting work since the very beginning.

Lee University carries out its work through the leadership of the President’s Cabinet, which comprises the president, the provost, and seven Vice Presidents. Each of eight units at Lee is referred to as a “sector” and is led by one of these Vice Presidents. Sectors at Lee are as follows:

• Academic Affairs
• Business and Finance
• Enrollment and Marketing
• Information Technology
• Operations
• Student Life
• Student Success
• University Relations

Lee’s largest sector, Academic Affairs, includes the seven colleges and schools that serve all the university’s academic programs. Along with the Provost and the Vice President for Academic Affairs, these colleges and schools are led by a group of deans and associate deans. The university’s seven academic units are as follows:

• College of Arts and Sciences
• Helen DeVos College of Education
• School of Business
• School of Engineering
• School of Music
• School of Nursing
• School of Theology & Ministry

Look below to see the roster of outstanding leaders responsible for making every part of the university effective, efficient, and excellent.

VICE PRESIDENTS

ADMINISTRATIVE STAFF

DEANS

Dr. Phil Cook
President

 Dr. Phil Cook began his term as the eighteenth president of Lee University on July 1, 2025. The university’s Board of Directors announced Cook’s appointment in early May after an extensive national search carried out by the Presidential Search Committee in collaboration with FaithSearch Partners of Dallas.

Cook succeeded veteran president Dr. Paul Conn, who completed a one-year term as president and returned to his role as chancellor.

Cook brings over 30 years of experience in higher education, most recently serving as President and CEO of the North American Coalition for Christian Admissions Professionals (NACCAP) beginning in 2021.

Of his experience in higher education, the lion’s share is with a specific focus on enrollment management, as NACCAP is an association for enrollment professionals, and his prior experience was in service at Lee University in the enrollment sector. From 1997 to 2021 he held every administrative position in the unit from Assistant Director of Admissions to Vice President for Enrollment Management. He led the enrollment team during an extended period of consistent, dramatic growth that revolutionized the university’s profile on the landscape of Christian higher education.

During his long stint as a Lee employee, Cook also gained a familiarity with other aspects of university life, as he served as a resident director and as Director of Student Events and also found time to serve as a sponsor of the men’s social service club Alpha Gamma Chi, as an instructor in both the School of Religion and the Office of First Year programs, as moderator of Dixon Center chapel services, and even as the public address announcer for Lee University home basketball games. This track record not only speaks of a significant long-term commitment to Lee University, but also an investment into the day-to-day lives of its students.

Cook holds a PhD in higher education administration from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, a Master of Divinity from the Church of God School of Theology, and a Bachelor of Science in Business from Lee.

An ordained bishop in the Church of God, he is married to Tonya Cook, and they have three children and two grandchildren.