Averett University names next president, its fourth in 18 months

Tatia Daniels Granger will become Averett University’s fourth president within 18 months as the Danville private institution continues efforts to recover from a financial crisis.

Granger, recently a clinical associate professor in organizational behavior for William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business, will start as Averett’s 17th president Aug. 1, the school announced Monday.

Averett’s first Black president and second female president in the school’s 167-year history, Granger succeeds Thomas H. Powell, who served in the role for 15 months. Powell replaced David Joyce, who stepped down in April 2025 after three months due to a “significant family health matter.” Tiffany Franks, who led the college for 17 years, retired in early 2025.

Granger comes to the university at a challenging moment, as it has worked to cut costs and recover from budget deficits that came to light in 2024, although retiring president Powell said in an interview Tuesday that the school is currently in better financial shape and has more oversight measures in place enacted during his tenure.

From 2008 to 2017, Granger was William & Mary’s inaugural ombuds, a position that was created, according to the university, “as a result of interest on the part of university staff for an alternate form of addressing workplace concerns.”

In 2015, Granger launched her own executive coaching practice, Granger Leadership Practice.

“She brings not only an impressive breadth of leadership experience, but also a warmth, authenticity and collaborative spirit that reflects the very best of Averett,” Emma Maddux Kozlowski, chair of Averett’s Board of Trustees, said in a statement. “We believe she will inspire our community, strengthen the relationships that define this university and lead with both courage and compassion.”

Kozlowski also praised Powell in Monday’s news release. “He stepped into the presidency during a particularly challenging time for the institution and provided the steady leadership and stability that Averett needed.”

Earlier in her career, Granger was the vice president for enrollment services at Bennett College in North Carolina. She also previously served as chief of staff to the chief financial officer at Duke University. Granger was previously the director of James Madison University’s Center for Multicultural Student Services and was the assistant dean of undergraduate admission for the University of Virginia.

Granger earned a doctorate in higher education leadership from U.Va., where she also earned a master’s in social foundations of education and an undergraduate degree in French. Granger completed the leadership coaching certificate program at Georgetown University and earned the professional coaching certification from the International Coach Federation.

Providing stability

Averett’s financial woes were made public in 2024 when its leaders announced furloughs and other cost-cutting measures. In March 2025, Averett filed a federal lawsuit alleging that former Averett Chief Financial Officer Donald Aungst and Arizona-based Global Strategic Investment Solutions had “surreptitiously” drained nearly $20 million from the university’s endowment to cover the university’s budget deficits. In August 2025, a judge ordered that the dispute be settled through arbitration.

Averett’s board coaxed Powell out of retirement to lead Averett last year. He is the former president of Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland, where he served from 2003 to 2015, and he was also president of Glenville State University in West Virginia from 1999 to 2003.

Under Powell’s leadership, the university received consents from the majority of holders of about $13.3 million in bonds, allowing the private university in Danville to complete a sale-leaseback deal of its E. Stuart James Grant North Campus. The Danville Regional Foundation and the Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facility Authority will pay $18.15 million for the property in a deal that closed in January.

The agreement provided the university with liquidity for operations, while allowing students to continue using the facilities.

Under the bond agreement, Averett’s debt service coverage ratio could not drop below 1.20 for two consecutive fiscal years. In fiscal year 2022, the debt service coverage ratio was -3.12. It was 1.08 in fiscal year 2023 and -4.46 in fiscal year 2024. In fiscal year 2025, it was 7.23, according to an annual report posted Dec. 7, 2025, on the Electronic Municipal Market Access website, a repository of municipal bond documents.

Averett’s 2025-26 operating budget was balanced, according to the same document.

“It should be noted that the budget is conservative in regard to enrollment and fundraising,” the document stated.

Right now, Averett University has 248 new undergraduate students who’ve paid their deposit to attend when classes begin Aug. 19, Powell said in an interview with Virginia Business on Tuesday. That’s up from the 2025-2026 year,  when the university had 182 first-time students.  But, it’s a drop from August 2018, when the university reported a record-breaking 381 students in the entering class.

Even so, Averett is financially stable now, Powell said. Basically, he sums up the root of the school’s financial problems this way: “We weren’t living within our means.”

Last summer, Averett cut two majors, two minors and a concentration. Powell also put policies in place creating more financial oversight. Previously, just one person determined the amount of financial aid a student received, but now more people weigh in. “We now have several levels of review and final review,” Powell said.

“All the old bills are paid,” he said. “We’re current with everything. We’re not in jeopardy right now of closing, and we have a two-year runway that Averett should be able to survive very well for the next two years.”

The university sold the North Campus, its athletic grounds, to the Danville Regional Foundation and Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facility Authority for $18.15 million in a sale-leaseback deal that closed in January, with payments of $6.75 million at close, $6.75 million in 2027 and $4.65 million in 2028.

Powell said that although this sale sets up Averett for temporary stability, “It’s going to be the years after that that become the struggle. Can we differentiate ourselves enough, keep up our enrollment and make sure that we we’re not faced with any severe emergencies or anything? I think Averett could survive.”

Still, Powell said one bright spot is the Virginia General Assembly’s authorization this year of George Mason University’s public-private partnership with Averett, cited in the state budget as serving “the purpose of meeting the demands of a rapidly growing economy in Southern Virginia, by increasing access to both undergraduate and graduate level higher education, enhancing workforce training and career pathways and supporting economic development in Southern Virginia.”

Powell noted, “We’ve got to figure out ways of working together in more partnerships and in some sort of unique ways that that will help us save money.” Regarding the legal action between Averett, its former CFO and Global Strategic Investment Solutions, Powell said arbitration is moving at a “glacial pace.”

When his appointment was announced in 2025, Powell had been retired after lengthy terms as president of two other colleges, and he said Tuesday he had initially planned to remain in office at Averett for two years. But when he sat down with the board in March, he’d moved Averett into a good place to attract “somebody with more energy and more passion,” Powell said. “Now they need somebody for a longer haul. I’m absolutely not willing to make a longer haul.”