Dr. Cynthia T. Anthony is as much a veteran in the Alabama Community College System as anyone could be, having spent more than 30 years in various roles. And now, she’s gone from interim president to president of Lawson State Community College, the school where she first started her career.
Anthony will be the first female president of Lawson State.
Anthony started her career at Bessemer State Technical College, rising through the ranks “from financial aid, to assistant dean, to dean of students” over 15 years, before Bessemer merged with Lawson State in 2005. At Lawson State, she became executive vice president and dean of students.
In the span of approximately the last six years, Anthony served as interim president at a number of other community colleges in the state system: Enterprise State Community College, Shelton State Community College and Drake State Technical and Community College. She then took to the state-wide level in January 2019 as interim vice chancellor for student success for the system before being appointed Lawson State’s interim president in September 2020.
“As interim vice chancellor for student success, I did have a system-wide responsibility for student success and student services initiatives at all 24 of our community and technical colleges,” Anthony said in an interview with Diverse.
She now brings her storied career and experiences back to Lawson State.
“I think, having served as interim president at a number of institutions in various areas of the state – different sizes and scopes of institution – how all of those experiences have afforded me a great deal of knowledge and best practices that I can bring here to Lawson State,” Anthony said. “I can just bring those things really back home to certainly benefit Lawson State Community College.”
