Alan Edwards '88, Ed.S. '93, Ph.D. '01
Alan Edwards '88, Ed.S. '93, Ph.D. '01, has worked for the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) for 22 years. On January 1, he began serving as the agency’s Interim Director. His ongoing position is Director of the Strategic Planning and Policy Studies section. For most of 2023, he also served as the Interim Director of the Finance Policy and Innovation section.
Edwards joined SCHEV in 2002 soon after completing a Ph.D. in the Educational Policy, Planning & Leadership (EPPL) program with an emphasis on Higher Education Administration. He started in an entry-level position in SCHEV’s Academic Affairs section and had risen to Assistant Director of Academic Affairs when he was selected to serve as the first Director of Policy Studies. Often over the years, the recently-retired agency director would introduce Edwards as his “utility infielder.”
"I readily admit that a major reason I've been with SCHEV for over two decades is because I like having a variety of 'things to do' – and at SCHEV, I always have," said Edwards. "Being asked by the Chair of the State Council to serve as the agency’s Interim Director is my proudest professional accomplishment. It’s a new set of 'things to do,' and even though I’m more of an infielder than a pitcher, I am prepared for the challenge thanks to my time at William & Mary."
Edwards' proudest personal accomplishment is the role he has played in hiring other SCHEV staff members – and in subsequent hirings by those staff. More than a few people are employed at SCHEV because of search processes in which he was directly or indirectly involved, and the personal responsibility he feels for the agency’s staff is a major reason he agreed to the interim SCHEV directorship. His family instilled that sense of duty and loyalty in him, and William & Mary cultivated it and prepared him to deploy it professionally.
The late Jim Yankovich, a former Dean of the William & Mary School of Education, used to speak of alumni who worked for (or near) the university as people who came to the campus, “fell in love with the brick work,” and could not seem to leave. Edwards did eventually leave, but not before being shaped into the professional he is today.
"I work in higher-ed policy because of my experiences – as an undergrad and a grad student – at William & Mary," he said. "I returned after completing my master’s elsewhere because I could not conceive of studying higher education anywhere else. If not for William & Mary, and its School of Education, I’d be doing something else, somewhere else. I am confident that both the what and the where would not be as good."
