Mississippi University for Women alumni and staff, along with Columbus city officials, shared their input on what they’re looking for in the university’s next president with the Mississippi Institutions for Higher Learning Board of Trustees on April 14
Current President Nora Miller announced her retirement in January. She has served as president for more than seven years. The IHL board announced on April 18 that MUW Provost and Executive Vice President of Academic Affairs Scott Tollison will serve as interim president upon Miller’s retirement. He will assume the role on July 1.
“I am grateful to the Board of Trustees for their confidence, and I am excited about the opportunity to serve MUW in this important role,” Tollison said in the statement.
Although the board requested that none of the speakers endorse a particular candidate, at least two named Sally Burchfield Doty as their choice for the top spot.
“Sally is a strong female leader with a mission-driven vision for the W,” MUW alumnus B.R. Hawkins told the board. “Someone whose ideas and energy can meet the challenge of a changing higher education landscape. Someone with direct work experience with the legislative process and policies, someone who understands Mississippi’s workforce and economic development and how Columbus, Mississippi, can stand tall in the Golden Triangle as one who contributes to the economic development of this area.
Doty, an MUW alumna, served in the Mississippi Senate from 2012 to 2020. She chaired the Mississippi Senate Committee and was appointed to the Joint Legislative Budget Task Force. Doty resigned from her Senate seat in 2020 when Gov. Tate Reeves appointed her as the executive director of the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff. She currently serves as the executive director of the Office of Broadband Expansion and Accessibility of Mississippi.
Jane Perkins Brown, who came to the meeting from Birmingham, Alabama, also endorsed Doty. The Rankin County native is a member of the MUW Foundation Board of Directors, where she served two terms as board chair.
“I personally know Sally Burchfield Dody, her background, experiences and understanding of state government and budgets, universities (and) higher education,” Brown said. “She is a strong candidate, from my perspective, to move into this presidential role and very quickly be able to navigate the W’s opportunities and challenges.”
The W, as the school is affectionately known, was founded in 1884 as the country’s first state-supported women’s college.
Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science Director for Academic Affairs Thomas Easterling said the college’s relationship with the school is a “treasured relationship” that the new president should work to continue.
“We share all kinds of resources, from the Student Health Center to the gym to the cafeteria to the library and because we share those resources, I do hope you will keep MSMS liaised or in mind once the process begins because what is best for one of these institutions almost always turns out to be what’s best for the other and that that relationship should, I hope, be respected,” Easterling said.
Miller consistently fought efforts to move MSMS, a public residential school for academically gifted juniors and seniors, from the MUW campus. In March 2025, the Mississippi State Board of Education voted unanimously to recommend to the Mississippi Legislature that it consider relocating the school to the campus of Mississippi State University. The Legislature did not act on the recommendation during this session. During her tenure, Miller also successfully fought a measure that would have merged MUW with Mississippi State.
Columbus Mayor Stephen Jones said he hopes the committee selects a candidate who will continue the strong partnership between the university and the city.
“We’ve been in talks with developing some sports programs and working in Propst Park together, so we want to make sure that that person is on board with that,” Jones said. “We also have some job programs that we do with them through the city that we’re renegotiating the contracts on, so we hope that person will be able to help better serve that. So whoever you pick, we just hope that they work with the City of Columbus. And when you think about Starkville, you think about Mississippi State. So when you think about Columbus, we want you to think about the W.”
