MSCC Reorganizing Foundation, Marketing Departments, Names Executive Director

Todd Pendergrass, who came to Mid-South Community College as coordinator of Career Services, has been promoted to Executive Director of Institutional Advancement as part of the College’s ongoing restructuring.

Pendergrass will oversee MSCC’s Foundation and Marketing/Public Relations department in his new role. The retirement of Len Grice, Marketing/PR Director at the college for more than four years, played a part in the administrative decision to merge the two departments.

“Todd brings an excellent background in working with people and with new media, and he’s had a good deal of exposure to successful marketing concepts,” said Dr. Glen Fenter, MSCC President.

“Len’s going to stay on in a consulting role to help make certain we’re navigating a lot of the areas that are the most laden with icebergs.”

Pendergrass said he is looking forward to the challenges of his new role at the College.

“I’m grateful to Dr. Fenter for entrusting this position to me and consider it a privilege to be given the opportunity to build upon the strong foundation that has been established by Len Grice, Patti Coleman and their teams,” he said.

“I appreciate Len’s willingness to remain in a consultant role throughout the coming months. It will serve to create a smooth transition and seamless service to the institution and our students. And I’m looking forward to working with Patti and the Foundation Board as our team takes the Foundation to new levels of participation and impact.”

Dr. Fenter said MSCC continues to pursue elevated excellence even when valued employees leave.
“We’re looking at a number of things to improve our efficiency,” he said. “Our goal is to be at least as strong, if not stronger, as an institution after we move through this process. We’re going to be more effective, but it’s not going to happen without a whole lot of people rethinking how we do things.”
Dr. Fenter said the merging of the Foundation and Marketing/PR department makes good sense on a number of levels.

“I’ve always thought a strong connection between marketing, recruiting, and advertising and what we’re doing in the Foundation world is vitally important to the success of our institution,” he explained. “We probably haven’t maximized the overall effectiveness of those areas because each one has been too busy fighting the alligators to drain the swamp.”

“Len and his staff have done a fantastic job of doing very great things with very limited resources. That takes good leadership and people who are talented and dedicated. We’ve been very fortunate to have people who are very good at their jobs, but we haven’t always made it a priority to step back and try to figure out how we can do things even better.”

By combining the two departments, the College will take a more holistic, focused approach to its overall mission.

“We will be bringing additional people and talent to situations that in the past we had attacked with a smaller number of human resources,” Dr. Fenter said. “This is a great opportunity to create better integration between two departments that have been operating individually. Taking a global approach while viewing situations in a larger context will help us do a better job.”

Pendergrass came to MSCC in November 2012 after almost two years as a Web Marketing and Analytics manager for EPIC Solutions in Bartlett, Tenn., a progressive marketing company that specializes in technology and management solutions.

Prior to his work at EPIC, he served almost 13 years as Executive Administrator, Administration and Missions for First Baptist Church of Bartlett, Tenn. Among many other duties, Pendergrass managed a staff of 60, and coordinated all development, marketing communications, website, and public relations efforts.

He also served as president of P.L.A.N.T. Worldwide (Partners Loving A Nation Together), a non-profit international organization dedicated to starting ministries and strengthening church. Pendergrass has participated in mission work in the Bahamas, Republic of Georgia, Africa, Thailand, Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Brazil.

A one-time adjunct professor for Union University, Pendergrass holds a master’s degree in Religion and Education from the Mid America Baptist Theological Seminary and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of North Alabama.