The University of West Florida Presidential Search Committee has selected Manny Diaz Jr. as the sole finalist for the UWF Board of Trustees to consider as the University\u2019s seventh president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Presidential Search Committee worked diligently to recommend the best candidate to serve as UWF\u2019s next president,\u201d said Zack Smith, chair of the UWF Presidential Search Committee. \u201cAfter reviewing all of the applicants and conducting in-person interviews, it became clear that Interim President Diaz\u2019s experiences of working in higher education, shaping education policy in the Florida Legislature, and serving on the State University System of Florida Board of Governors \u2014 while also serving as Florida\u2019s Education Commissioner \u2014 have uniquely prepared him to be UWF\u2019s next president.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diaz has served as interim president of UWF since July 2025 and brings a record of leadership in education policy, organizational strategy and initiatives focused on student success and innovation. He is a lifelong educator, whose career spans roles as a teacher, coach, assistant principal and chief operating officer of Doral College, followed by service as Florida\u2019s Commissioner of Education and a member of the Board of Governors. Prior to his appointment as commissioner, he served in the Florida House and Senate, where he became a leading voice on education policy and sponsored numerous initiatives supporting students, families and teachers.<\/p>\n
The presidential search committee process followed state law and Florida Board of Governors\u2019 regulation to include stakeholder input; the development of a position profile; marketing of the position; identifying and screening the most qualified candidates; and then recommending a finalist to the Board of Trustees for consideration.<\/p>\n
The UWF Board of Trustees is responsible for selecting the University President, whose appointment is then subject to confirmation by the Florida Board of Governors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a next step in the process, the University will host an open public forum with Diaz, as well as an interview with the UWF Board Of Trustees. These meetings will be open to the campus community and general public, as well as livestreamed via WUWF<\/a>. For more information on the UWF Presidential Search, visit uwf.edu\/presidentialsearch<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The University of West Florida Presidential Search Committee has selected Manny Diaz Jr. as the sole finalist for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27236,6876,28,30,29,35174,2571,35173],"class_list":["post-56897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-board-of-governors","tag-board-of-trustees","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-interim-president-diaz-jr","tag-manny-diaz-jr","tag-presidential-search"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}