Javier Gonzalez, director of CAMP/HEP; and Dr. Billy Reynolds, associate professor and interim head of the Department of Literature and Language at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, have been selected to take part in the University System of Georgia Executive Leadership Institute.

The ELI is the flagship system-wide development program designed under the guidance of the Chancellor of the University System and with significant input from executive leaders from each institution.

This institute addresses the need for succession planning by identifying and developing high potential employees to equip them to become the next generation of exemplary leaders. A highly interactive learning experience, the ELI develops leadership capabilities in critical competency areas.

A job-shadowing project is one of many endeavors which participants in the program will be involved.

Gonzalez has been involved with the education field for 18 years. He served as an adolescent outreach-resource specialist for the Marion County Board of Education and an adolescent outreach specialist at the Chattahoochee-Flint Regional Education Service Agency before joining the ABAC staff in 2003.

Gonzalez earned a General Educational Development diploma from Heart of Georgia Technical College in Dublin. He received his bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Georgia Southern University and a master’s in education leadership degree from Columbus State University. He earned an English as a second language certification from the State University of West Georgia and an education certification in Spanish Education K-12 from Georgia Southwestern State University.

Reynolds has 14 years of experience in higher education, including serving as a faculty member at Mississippi State University, the University of Michigan – Flint, and Western Michigan University before coming to ABAC in 2005.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and his master’s degree in English from Mississippi State University. He received his doctorate from Western Michigan University, with an emphasis in creative writing (poetry).