Atlanta – The state board that oversees the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) today approved TCSG Commissioner Ron Jackson’s selection of Dr. Ray Perren to be the next president of Valdosta Technical College.

Perren (photo) will begin the president’s job on June 1 after the retirement of Dr. F.D. Toth, who has been the interim president of Valdosta Technical College since December 2007.

Perren is currently the TCSG Assistant Commissioner for Technical Education, a position that he has held since June 2008.  His responsibilities include the coordination and management of all technical education curricula and programs for Georgia’s 33 technical colleges as well as all TCSG online instruction, student services, accreditation activities and high school dual enrollment programs.

Perren was the president of East Central Technical College in Fitzgerald from February 2006 until June 2008.  His previous jobs have included dean of academic affairs for DeVry University’s Atlanta campuses and superintendent of the Paulding County School System.

“Dr. Perren will be an outstanding leader for Valdosta Technical College,” said Jackson. “He knows the area quite well and understands the vital role that the college and technical education have in building the workforce for business and industry in the region and throughout all of Georgia.  He’s a career educator and a gifted administrator whose focus will always be on doing what’s best for the college, its faculty and staff, and most important, its students.”

Perren will also have the responsibility of guiding the TCSG plan to merge the administrations of Valdosta Technical College and East Central Technical College in July 2010.

Perren’s career in education began in 1980 as a teacher in the Paulding County, Ga., school system. He rose through a succession of positions that included elementary and middle school principal, curriculum director and assistant superintendent.  In 1996 he was appointed as the superintendent of schools by the Paulding County Board of Education and managed a $75 million annual budget for 15,000 students and 1,700 employees.

Perren became the dean of academic affairs at DeVry University in 2000 where he oversaw the instructional programs and academic operations for 5,200 graduate and undergraduate students at DeVry’s two Georgia campuses and seven other DeVry centers in Atlanta and North Carolina. 

Perren graduated from the University of Georgia in 1979 with a bachelor of science in education.  He has master of education and specialist in education degrees from West Georgia College and a doctor of strategic leadership from Regent University in Virginia Beach, Va.

He and his wife, Joy, have six children.

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