Bill Bagents is Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of the University. In addition to his responsibility for the overall academic program, he serves as director of the annual Evangelism Workshop and makes an international teaching trip each year. Bill's wife, Laura, teaches 8th grade English at Florence Middle School. They work and worship with the Mars Hill church of Christ where Bill serves as an elder and associate minister. They have two sons, John who works in Birmingham and Allen who is a student at LSU.
He has over twenty years experience in ministry with local churches having served as campus ministry intern, youth minister, educational director, and preacher. Bill was reared on a farm near Luverne, Alabama. He received his B.S. in Agricultural Science (Agronomy) from Auburn University in 1978. In 1980, he received an M.A. in New Testament from Alabama Christian School of Religion. An M.Ed. in counselor education was completed at Auburn in 1982. He received the M.Div. from Southern Christian University in 1992 and the D.Min. from that school in 1996. Bill's mission efforts include teaching trips to Jamaica; Syktyvkar, Russia; Albania; Bangladesh; Namibia; South Aftrica, and Nigeria.