Ouachita Baptist University selects Dr. Ben Sells as 16th President

The trustees of Arkadelphia-based Ouachita Baptist University unanimously elected Dr. Ben R. Sells as OBU’s 16th president during a special called meeting April 7. He will begin serving this month as president-elect and officially will assume the presidency effective June 1, according to a campus press release.

Sells recently served more than nine years as vice president for university advancement at Taylor University in Upland, Ind.

Sells holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., and two degrees, a Master of Arts and a PhD in higher and adult education, from the University of Missouri in Columbia. As an undergraduate, he participated in the Oxford Overseas Study Program and in 2012 he earned a certificate from Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management.

Other higher education experience includes serving as vice president for admissions and student life and director of university ministries at Southwest Baptist University and as an English instructor at Huaiyin Teachers College in China. He also has served as vice president for Avis Industrial Corporation, senior vice president of development for Enactus, coordinator of the Southern Baptist International Mission Board’s International Learning Center and director of the IMB’s International Centre for Excellence in Leadership.

Sells succeeds Dr. Rex Horne who resigned as president last year to accept the presidency of Arkansas’ Independent Colleges and Universities. Dr. Charles Wright, retired dean of Ouachita’s School of Fine Arts, has served since last August as interim president and will continue to serve in that role through the current academic year.

“The presidential search committee’s desire to do a national search was different than all of our presidential searches in recent history,” said Jay Heflin, chairman of the OBU Board of Trustees. “However, I believe that this has resulted in our eyes being opened to several opportunities that we have not been able to see in the past. And, ultimately, I believe that this national search has brought Ouachita a new president who is wonderfully gifted in many ways.”

“Dr. Sells has a broad base of Christian, liberal arts experience and shares the values of our university honed by serving at a similar campus in a small town setting,” noted Heflin, a 1993 Ouachita alumnus who served as an ex officio member of the search committee. “His experience and giftedness is a wonderful compliment to the unique set of needs that Ouachita has at this time in her history.”

OBU officials said the nine-month presidential search process was different than previous searches and that Sells’ selection marks the first time in more than 60 years that a newly elected Ouachita president has not had previous ties to Ouachita as an alumnus, staff member or trustee.

Sells’ wife, Lisa, is the co-founder and executive director of Lift, an after-school faith-based initiative for elementary school students. They are the parents of four children: Emily (husband, Ben) Kenney, Patrick (wife, Sarah) Sells, Abby (husband, Tim) Miller, and Tyler, 14, a high school freshman.