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WINTER HAVEN — It’s official: Anastasios “Stasi” Kamoutsas is the new president of Polk State College.
The college’s District Board of Trustees voted 5-0 at their June 3 meeting to appoint Kamoutsas, who has served as Florida’s commissioner of education for almost exactly one year, as the school’s sixth president. Trustees Greg Littleton and Ashley Bell Barnett were absent and could not vote.
A Polk State search committee had recommended Kamoutsas, 37, as the sole finalist for the position, Polk State announced on May 13.
Former Polk State President Angela Garcia Falconetti resigned in February to take a position as interim president at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville. Polk State trustees selected Anne Kerr, president emerita of Florida Southern College in Lakeland, as the school’s interim leader.
Trustees spoke enthusiastically about Kamoutsas during the June 3 meeting.
“This is an important moment for the college, and I believe that it brings the right mix of experience, steadiness and understanding of our mission,” said Barnett, speaking by Zoom from Poland, where she was on vacation with her family.
Barnett added: “I’m confident that Stasi is well prepared to help lead us into the next chapter.”
Under a Florida law adopted in 2022, presidential searches at state colleges and universities are closed to the public until finalists are revealed. Continuing a trend started at other schools, the Polk State search committee nominated only Kamoutsas as a finalist, ensuring that the names of all other applicants would remain secret, along with the details of the process.
The opening drew more than 100 applications “from higher education leaders across the country,” Polk State said in a news release. Myers McRae Executive Search and Consulting, a New Jersey company, coordinated the national search.
The search committee included all seven trustees — Barnett, Littleton, Ann Barnhart, Kyle Davis, Steve Lester, Cindy Hartley Ross and Ashley Troutman — along with Anthony Cornett, a professor and president of the Faculty Senate; Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd; and former state legislators Denise Grimsley and Kelli Stargel.
Kamoutsas has never worked at a college or university, according to his official biography. The Department of Education oversees state colleges and universities.
The Miami native began his career as an assistant state attorney in Miami-Dade County, according to his official biography. In 2019, he joined the Florida Department of Education’s Office of General Counsel, rising to become general counsel and then chief of staff.
Kamoutsas was promoted to become deputy chief of staff to Gov. Ron DeSantis, overseeing policy in the governor’s priority areas of education, law enforcement and emergency management.
Kamoutsas, who holds a law degree from Regent University School of Law, will be the first president of Polk State not to have an academic doctorate degree. Before the search began, trustees voted to change a longstanding college rule that required the president to hold an “earned doctorate from a regionally-accredited graduate university.”
With Kamoutsas’ hiring official, the Board of Trustees will begin negotiations on a contract agreement. As of June 2025, Falconetti received an annual salary of $310,247. Kamoutsas is paid $299,574 as education commissioner.
Kamoutsas’ wife, Rachel B. Kamoutsas, is a judge on Florida’s Sixth District Court of Appeal, based in Lakeland. Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed her to that position last November. The couple have four daughters.
Polk State, founded as a junior college in 1964, has about 15,000 students and offers associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees in some programs and certifications. The school’s main campus is in Winter Haven, and it operates campuses in Lakeland, Bartow, Lake Wales.
The college is constructing the long-planned Haines City-Davenport campus, scheduled to open in spring 2027.
Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.
This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk State College trustees vote to hire Kamoutsas as next president
Reporting by Gary White, Lakeland Ledger / The Ledger
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By Gary White, Lakeland Ledger | USA TODAY Network
