Dr. Wynn Rosser has been named the new commissioner of higher education for the State of Texas. Dr. Rosser will serve as the chief executive officer of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, leading the state agency, which has a $2.9 billion operating budget, manages Texas’ financial aid programs, and executes Texas’ strategic vision for public higher education. Dr. Rosser will report to the agency’s 10-member, governor-appointed board.
Texas’s economic success depends on an educated, skilled workforce. In this role, he will lead with a commitment to advancing higher education and support the state’s strategic plan of building a talent strong Texas.
Dr. Rosser has an extensive background in higher education and public service, working to ensure all Texans have an opportunity to earn a high-quality education and attain good-paying jobs in Texas. In 2016, he joined the T.L.L. Temple Foundation as president and CEO. While there, he built a team committed to empowering rural East Texas through innovative solutions in education, healthcare, regional community development, and community resilience.
“There are many factors outside of education that contribute to the success of education,” noted Dr. Rosser. “At the T.L.L. Temple Foundation, we focused on factors inside and outside of the classroom to help develop educational success.”
Dr. Rosser is on the advisory board for the Center for Nonprofits and Philanthropy at The Bush School of Government and Public Service. As an adjunct faculty member, Dr. Rosser has taught a course annually for the Bush School’s Department of Public Service and Administration.
Rosser’s prior teaching experience at the Bush School includes leading students in capstone classes where they explore a subject of interest and work to advance the topic. Examples include an analysis of rural student postsecondary success for Educate Texas, developing a strategic plan for The Salvation Army in Bryan-College Station, supporting the Knapp Community Care Foundation in the Rio Grande Valley to better understand healthcare in the region, and developing education and career strategies for Workforce Solutions Capital Area focused on opportunity youth, ages 16 to 25, and not participating in education, training, or the workforce.
Riley Thomason is a graduate student this semester in Rosser’s Bush School class on nonprofit advocacy in the Department of Public Service and Administration. “Dr. Rosser’s extensive experience allows him to teach a very practical course. He always has solid advice and is such a caring, attentive person. His humility in how he leads is something I have taken notice of,” Thomason said. “It’s an honor to be in his class. I have learned a lot from him.”
“Dr. Rosser is an exemplar for the quality and character of our faculty at the Bush School,” Bush School Dean John Sherman stated. “We congratulate him in his important, new role leading Texas higher education.”
Rosser will be the seventh individual to serve as Commissioner of Higher Education since its founding by Gov. John Connally in 1965.
