Office of the President

President Derrick Worrels

 

Derrick Worrels currently serves as the President at Ranger College. President Worrels has served over 29 years in Higher Education. He leads a team focused on increasing access, improving support, advancing economic success in the Ranger College service area, and creating a culture of care.

Before he became President at Ranger College, President Worrels served as Senior Vice- President and Vice-President for student services at Ranger College. He also served as Enrollment Development Coordinator, Athletic Director, Adjunct Professor, Assistant Dean, and Head Men’s Basketball Coach at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa, Fl. While in this role, President Worrels started Project Hype (Helping young people excel). Project Hype was a
program to mentor young minority males in middle and high school. President Worrels also served as a basketball coach for over 15 years at the community college and NCAA Division I level, molding the lives of young men and women. As a result of his coaching and administrative prowess in Florida, President Worrels was recently inducted into the Florida Community College Basketball Hall of Fame.

Having grown up in a housing project in Tampa, Florida. President Worrels has had firsthand experience with the poverty, violence, and crime that hinder so many American youths from pursuing education. As a first-generation college student in the 1980s, he attended Hillsborough Community College with a firm commitment to making a difference for himself and people facing similar struggles. He has been committed to saving students drowning in the areas that low-income, first-generation, and at-risk students suffer from. His mission has shifted slightly from saving drowning students to ensuring they never fall into the dangerous waters that prevent them from completing their education.

President Worrels earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, his master’s degree in psychology from National Louis University, and his master’s coursework in counseling from Liberty University. President Worrels is completing his doctoral degree in community college leadership at Kansas State University.