Chuck Baker has announced that he is retiring from his role as vice president for Advancement at Bryan College effective April 1. Mr. Baker has been serving in this role at Bryan for the past four years after retiring from successful executive roles at Unum and as president of Bethel Bible Village.
Under Mr. Baker’s leadership, the Advancement department has enhanced the Giving Tuesday/Gifts for the King annual fundraising efforts. His strength in leadership has been most apparent in his ability to make all of his staff better in each of their given areas. He will be greatly missed, said officials. Mr. Baker has also agreed to remain available through this transition as well as provide executive consulting to David Holcomb as he assumes new responsibilities.
David Holcomb has accepted the new role of vice president of Advancement and Communication. He has served at Bryan as the director of the Scholarship Fund since 2012 and was the founder and director of the Martial Arts Academy at Bryan since 2016 and founder of the Evening with Bryan events held throughout the country. Mr. Holcomb is a ‘94 graduate of Bryan College and spent the majority of his earlier career in executive leadership roles in nonprofit and for profit organizations in the St. Louis area. Mr. Holcomb said he is excited about this opportunity to build on the strength of leadership and the legacy of Bryan College.
In addition, Janice Pendergrass has been promoted to associate vice president of Advancement and Event Planning. Ms. Pendergrass has served at Bryan since 2001 in various roles in the advancement department at Bryan. Her development and coordination of the quarterly requests for the Bryan Scholarship Fund letter have helped enhance donations to Bryan. In addition she currently has direct supervision of all members of the Advancement team with the exception of the vice president. Ms. Pendergrass has also been instrumental in the coordination and implementation of the annual Bryan Opportunity Dinner that is in its 12th year.
Zak Barnes, current assistant director, has agreed to become the director of the Martial Arts Academy along with Mr. Holcomb and Scott Shamblin as the team advisors. In addition, the team has promoted Seth Hill, 3rd degree to Senior Instructor, and four other upper classmates to the roles of captain in four areas: spiritual, recruitment, stand up training and ground training. The Martial Arts program will continue to grow with these four goals as the foundation for martial arts at Bryan College.