Dr. Thomas Moore Tapped To Be USC Upstate Chancellor

SPARTANBURG, SC – May 4, 2011 – Dr. Thomas F. Moore, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Winthrop University, has been named chancellor of the University of South Carolina Upstate.  His appointment will become effective Aug. 1.Moore’s appointment was announced Wednesday (May 4) by USC President Harris Pastides, who said Moore’s extensive background in higher education, knowledge of the state and commitment to excellence as a professor and an administrator make him an ideal choice to succeed Dr. John Stockwell, who is retiring after 17 years as chancellor.

Moore, 59, said he is honored to have been selected to lead Upstate and rejoin USC, where he earned his doctorate in inorganic chemistry.

I am grateful to Dr. Pastides for the confidence he has shown in me and for the opportunity to lead USC Upstate, particularly as it expands its economic development role and solidifies its reputation as a leading metropolitan university, Moore said. The leadership of Chancellor Stockwell has positioned the university for continued growth, greater visibility in the region and the state and growing recognition across the nation. Marsha and I are very pleased to be rejoining the USC family, and we look forward to working closely with President Pastides, the Board of Trustees and the Spartanburg Commission on Higher Education.

Moore’s appointment is the high point of a 30-year career in higher education in which he has worked closely with various constituencies, including students, faculty, administrators, alumni and business, community and political leaders. He joined Winthrop in 1986 as chair of the department of chemistry and physics, a post he held until 1994. In 1991, he also became director of the Master of the Liberal Arts Program. He served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2001- 03 and in the top position of faculty governance, representing faculty before Winthrop’s Board of Trustees, from 1996 – 2000.

At Winthrop, he has overseen curriculum and program development, faculty recruitment and evaluation, student recruitment and retention, strategic planning, budget planning, resource development and management from the program level to the institutional level.

He has served in his current post since 2003 and has had responsibility for five academic colleges, the graduate school and the library.

While he has been vice president, Winthrop has been cited favorably in U.S. News & World Report, Barron’s Best Buys and the Princeton Review and earned recognition from the Templeton Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation and the American Association of Colleges and Universities.

Tom Moore will be a dynamic, inspirational leader for Upstate, Pastides said (pictured left). He is passionate about education and has a deep understanding of itsvital role in shaping personal and intellectual growth, enhancingquality of life, and driving economic development. His knowledge ofSouth Carolina and the challenges that our state faces will allow himto make a smooth transition into his new role as a leader of one ofthe nation’s emerging metropolitan universities.

Moore is active in higher education initiatives nationally and has served on committees of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools and the Association of Graduate Liberal Studies Programs.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Huntingdon College in Montgomery, Ala., and his doctorate in inorganic chemistry from USC. He also has attended professional development programs at Harvard, Yale and Northwestern universities.

He began his academic career in 1978 as assistant professor of chemistry at Georgia Southern College, where he taught until 1981. From 1981 to 1986, he was on the faculty at Birmingham-Southern College, first as an assistant professor of chemistry and later as associate professor and director of the Honors Program.

A native of Alabama, Moore and his wife, Marsha, have two sons, Charlie and Kirk.

USC Upstate, which has been a four-year institution since 1975, offers more than 40 bachelor’s degree programs in the liberal arts and sciences, business administration, nursing and teacher education, and master’s degrees in education. Located in Spartanburg, it is among the fastest growing universities in South Carolina and enrolls 5,500 students from across the surrounding area, as well as 38 states and 71 countries. USC Upstate also has a Greenville campus that enrolls more than 1,000 junior- and senior-level commuter students each year. The George Dean Johnson Jr. College of Business and Economics opened in downtown Spartanburg in May 2010.