Dr. Herbert Riedel was officially named the next president of Lurleen B. Wallace Community College at the meeting of the State Board of Education Thursday in Montgomery.

Riedel, who was recommended to the board by Postsecondary Chancellor Bradley Byrne, was approved by a vote of 6-0, with three board members not present. He will begin work Jan. 1, 2009.

“It makes a tremendous difference to your system to make sure you have qualified persons in these leadership positions,” Byrne said. “We’re ecstatic that we were able to find someone like Dr. Riedel to lead LBWCC. We know he will do a great job and be ready to go on Jan. 1.”

Also confirmed by the board were Dr. Anne McNutt as new president at Bevill State Community College and Dr. Darryl Harrison as the new president at Gadsden State Community College.

“These three appointments today mark nine new presidents in the last 12 months, so this has been a pretty significant effort for our system,” Byrne said. “And we’re not done yet; we’ve got two more searches in the spring and at least one in the fall. It seems like we’ve been in perpetual search mode.”

Riedel, currently the vice president for instruction and student development at Northeast Community College in Pittsburg, Texas, said he was looking forward to the move to Alabama.

“We’re going to take a trip down to the area around Thanksgiving,” he said earlier this week. “We’re looking for a place to live and it will probably be in Andalusia, but we want to be a part of all the communities that LBW serves. I don’t know if that means like going to church in Opp, or something like that, but it’s very important for me to be involved everywhere that LBW serves.”

Riedel is excited about the chance to raise his family in Covington County. He is married to his wife of 15 years, Lisa, and they have two children, Matthew, 8, and Willie, 12.

“Lisa is a research chemist, but she chose not to be in the workforce because our children are school age and she wanted to value the time she had with them,” he said.

Riedel added that Matthew loves Little League baseball and is currently taking guitar lessons. Willie is on his school’s cross country team and plays the tenor saxophone in the marching band. The family also has a dog, Rusty.

Riedel will replace interim president Wayne Bennett, who has served in that position since then-president Dr. Ed Meadows left in May to take the same position at Pensacola Junior College.