Dr. Joseph Cliburn, associate vice president for Institutional Research and Planning, has been named vice president for Academic and Student Affairs for Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College. The promotion took effect Jan. 10, 2006.

Cliburn has been with Gulf Coast for 12 years and has worked in community colleges since 1979. His experience will help him “face both the possibilities and challenges of this new position. One challenge I am dealing with immediately is our continuing efforts toward a one-college concept for Gulf Coast.  With the number of campuses and the amount of autonomy each has had in the past, this is a challenge.  Great strides have already been made in this area, but there is always room for improvement.” 

Dr. Willis Lott, president of Gulf Coast, said, “Dr. Cliburn has the wonderful advantage of coming from an eclectic background.  He can teach, but he can also tell us, based on statistics, in what direction the college needs to go to meet the needs of our students.  He understands that our goal is to make that all-important difference in the lives of our students and in our communities.  We are proud to have Dr. Cliburn serving as a member of the leadership team at the college.”

With experience as both a classroom instructor and as institutional research director at Pearl River Community College, Cliburn brought years of experience to Gulf Coast when he began working there in 1994.  Since that time, he has worked closely with Gulf Coast President Willis Lott and the Executive Council to put Gulf Coast, for four consecutive years, in Community College Week’s list of the top-100 community colleges in the nation.

During his time as associate vice president for Institutional Research and Planning, Cliburn achieved a 66 percent reduction in paperwork and successfully integrated the college's program-review process with the planning process. In 1999, he established the online planning-forms system. In 2005, he developed an interactive online-planning system for Gulf Coast.  Additionally, he serves as a permanent member of the Instructional Affairs, Student Services and Technology councils. He also teaches anatomy and physiology online at Gulf Coast for the Mississippi Virtual Community College using the Blackboard platform.

Cliburn, who was born in Hazlehurst and raised in Hattiesburg, has a doctorate from The University of Southern Mississippi in science education.  He is married to the former Hannah Mauldin of McHenry, Miss.  Hannah and her parents, Bill and Dolores Mauldin, are all alumni of Gulf Coast’s Perkinston Campus.  Bill is a former member of the college’s Board of Trustees, and Dolores is a longtime member of the college’s Foundation Board of Directors and was inducted into the Alumni Hall of Fame in 1985.

The Cliburns have one daughter, Katherine, 19, a graduate of Stone High School, who is currently attending The University of Mississippi. As a high-school student, she was part of the college’s Dual Enrollment program, which helped propel her to junior status at Ole Miss after just one year at the university.