Emory & Henry names interim president

Louise “Lou” Fincher, Emory & Henry University’s senior vice president, has been named interim president of the Washington County-based private college beginning Aug. 1, as President John W. Wells steps down and becomes the school’s first chancellor in late July.

Fincher is also the inaugural dean of the E&H School of Health Sciences, a position she accepted in 2014, and became senior vice president in 2020, according to Emory & Henry’s announcement Monday. Fincher helped launch the health sciences school in Marion, and has led the development of the Southwest Virginia Healthcare Excellence Academy Laboratory School (SWVA-HEALS), which targets the health care worker shortage in Southwest Virginia.

Before coming to Emory & Henry, Fincher served as professor and chair of the kinesiology department in the College of Education and Health Professions at the University of Texas at Arlington, and she was president and CEO of the Joe W. King Orthopedic Institute at the Texas Orthopedic Hospital.

Wells became Emory & Henry’s 22nd president in 2019, and during his tenure, he launched a business school, a nursing school and the van Vlissingen Career Center. In 2017, he joined the school as provost and dean of faculty, after having served as associate general secretary for the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the worldwide United Methodist Church, and was chief academic officer at Mars Hill University in North Carolina.

Fincher holds a doctor of education degree with a focus on human performance studies from the University of Alabama, a master’s degree in education with a focus on athletic training from Indiana State University, and a bachelor’s degree from Stephen F. Austin State University. She will remain interim president until Wells’ successor is named by the university’s board of trustees.