To the Louisiana Tech Presidential Search Committee
The process of selecting the next President of LA Tech has begun. The importance of selecting a person with outstanding credentials and the proven experience to lead this Tier One Research University into the future cannot be overstated.
What should the Search Committee look for in selecting our next President?
Basic academic qualifications—a terminal degree from an outstanding university and successful university faculty and leadership experience, meeting the expectations for the President of a Tier One Research University.
- A real understanding of the evolving higher education landscape and the ever-increasing competitive market for universities.
- A real understanding of LA Tech’s distinctive strengths and history.
- Demonstrated ability to gain the trust of faculty, staff, students, alumni and donors, corporate and community partners, elected officials and state higher education leaders.
- A compelling and practical vision for Tech that is based on our history, our distinctive strengths and one that is consistent with Tech’s mission.
- That vision must address our near-term challenges as well as the evolution of Tech’s business model in the context of the new competitive environment.
- Commitment to disciplined financial stewardship, thoughtful prioritizations, candid communication, and the courage to make difficult decisions with transparency, care, and compassion.
- The experience and ability to navigate the political constituencies of higher education that are most relevant to Tech; these include students, families, faculty, staff, donors, alums, advocates and supporters, elected officials, and state higher education leadership.
We urge the Search Committee to measure all applicants against those criteria.
There is one applicant who both meets and exceeds these criteria—Dr. Dave N. Norris, Jr.
His academic credentials are: Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin (1999); M.S. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin (1996); B.S. in Economics from Louisiana Tech University (1991).
He has served Tech for 24 years, spending the last 13 years in senior leadership roles. He taught Economics for four years (at Northeastern University in Boston, MA and Louisiana Tech), helped build our entrepreneurship curriculum and taught entrepreneurship for seven years, and founded and served as Executive Director of the Louisiana Tech Center for Economic Development from 2004-2013. He helped launch and then also became the Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Information Technology, leading both centers from 2009-2013. In 2013 he moved into university leadership serving first as Chief Innovation Officer and then as Chief Research and Innovation Officer from 2013 to 2024. During that time, he continued to develop and lead new programs, centers, and major initiatives of the university. He assembled and still leads the team developing the Enterprise Campus including Tech Pointe I and Tech Pointe II. Under his leadership, the U.S. Department of Commerce selected Tech as the Regional Innovation Strategies Hub for north Louisiana and southern Arkansas. He has developed dozens of public-private partnerships with businesses that engage with Tech for research, technology development and student learning. He has secured millions in competitive federal grant awards to Tech and tens of millions more in revenue to support the university’s mission through the Innovation Enterprise and partnerships with private companies. During his time leading the research enterprise of the University from 2017-2021, Tech received the highest total competitive external funding in its history.
In recent years he led the creation of a public-private partnership involving Louisiana Tech, the University Foundation, the State of Louisiana’s Economic Development Agency, the City of Ruston, and a major defense contractor, Radiance Technologies, to build and operate a microchip and advanced microelectronics research facility in Ruston. This benefits not just Tech—it will benefit Ruston, Lincoln Parish and all of North Louisiana.
From 2024 to the present, he has served as Chief Executive Officer of the Louisiana Tech Foundation and as Senior Vice-President of Innovation and Advancement (IA), reporting directly to the President and the Foundation Board of Directors. Formed under Dr. Norris’s leadership in 2024, the IA division of the university represents years of program building and collaborative effort from on and off campus partners in pursuit of his vision of a new business model for the university. It is a critical component to the future viability and prosperity of Louisiana Tech.
Space does not allow a complete listing of all his leadership accomplishments. What we have listed establishes that he is who we need.
The partnerships and the new programs and enterprises created under his leadership brought together the entrepreneurial initiative of faculty, staff, students and community partners. All of these successes enhance the academic experience and careers of Tech’s students. They support faculty research excellence. They strengthen Tech’s brand and reputation. They connect Tech’s academic and research strengths with outside stakeholders to broaden Tech’s impact and reach. They also improve Tech’s finances by creating sustainable new revenue streams. And they drive economic development in our region.
His efforts have required him to develop relationships across the entire campus with Tech faculty, staff, students and leadership. But his work has required him to go far beyond Tech’s campus. He has developed the trust and cooperation of numerous corporations and their leadership, elected officials in Baton Rouge and Washington, D.C. and the leaders of numerous federal and state agencies. We know he can bring people together because he’s done it—and on a high level.
We need Dr. Norris as the next President of LA Tech. He’s who we must have as Tech’s President.
The Search Committee members and the University of Louisiana System Board want to hear a clear, broad-based statement of preference from the Louisiana Tech community. They want to know what we think, and they want to know who we want as our next president. If we speak, they will listen. You can send a message to the search committee at the following link: https://ulsystem.edu/latech-search. Follow the link and scroll to the bottom of the page. There is a place where you can share your thoughts on who should be our next president.
So let’s tell the Search Committee and entire Board of the University of Louisiana System that we already have the most qualified candidate on our campus. Let’s tell them that we want Dr. Norris as our next President. There is no one better qualified. No other applicant can approach his qualifications, his Tech ties, his Tech successes and his Tech track record. There is no one who has given more and has more to give to this university.
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