Dr. Jeremy Larance, West Liberty University’s (WLU) assistant provost was named to Complete College America’s (CCA) Impatient Reformers. Larance was first introduced to CCA in 2015 when the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission asked WLU to be one of the first four-year institutions in the state to work with the organization to create composition courses.

According to Larance, “[CCA] is a national nonprofit organization that works with colleges and statewide systems to improve college completion rates, especially among traditionally underrepresented populations.” One of the organization’s roles is to bring people together, such as policymakers and higher education experts, to make proving strategies or “game changers” easier. Larance furthered this statement saying without bringing these experts together, creating these proven strategies “might otherwise take years to improve and implement.”

An Impatient Reformer means Larance will have more opportunities to share the university’s success stories; additionally, he will have more access to individuals and resources that will help build up the university’s reputation of being a nationally recognized institution of higher education for student success.

“Understandably, the word “impatient” can have negative connotations like impulsive or reckless, but what it really means is that we are passionate and enthusiastic about the work we put into implementing proven student success initiatives,” said Larance.

According to a press release written by WLU’s Director of Media Relations, Maureen Zambito, Larance is a part of a cohort of CCA Impatient Reformers to join an existing community of Content Experts. “We are pleased that Dr. Jeremy Larance from West Liberty University will work with us to advance our bold success strategies,” said CCA’s CEO, Yolanda Watson Spiva.

CCA’s content experts are a select group of higher education practitioners, researchers and leaders. Each of these individuals have dedicated their careers to student success; in turn, CCA’s pillars of student success strategies have been implemented in colleges and universities nationwide.

In the same press release by Zambito, Larance is quoted saying, “I am extremely proud of West Liberty University’s reputation of being a nationally recognized leader of student success, in some cases doubling the pass rates of our most at-risk students and continuing to close inequity gaps that have unfairly hindered the potential of far too many students.” Larance added CCA’s resources to help build up the success of others has been an integral to the way he is able to help other schools and state systems.”

Larance is originally from Arkansas and earned his undergraduate degree in English from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn. Later, he went to Louisiana Tech in Ruston, La., where he earned his master’s in English Literature. His doctorate degree in English was earned at the University of Tulsa, located in Oklahoma. Larance has been teaching as an English professor at WLU since 2005.

For more information regarding Larance’s welcome to CCA’s Impatient Reformers, please email him at [email protected]. This article was cultivated by Zambito’s original press release published on WLU’s News Source website with original information added through a one-on-one interview with Larance. More information from Zambito’s press release can be found by following this link.