Cleveland, Ga. (BP)—Emir Caner, founding dean of The College at Southwestern in Fort Worth, Texas, was elected as the eighth president of Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, Ga., Aug. 8.

Caner, 37, who was raised in a Sunni Muslim family in Ohio and converted to Christianity as a teenager in 1982, will become the youngest president ever to lead Truett-McConnell, a four-year college affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention. He will begin his new duties Aug. 18.

Caner has led The College at Southwestern—the undergraduate program at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary—since 2005.

He has held faculty positions at Southwestern and at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Texas at Arlington, a master of divinity from Southeastern and a bachelor of arts in biblical studies from Criswell College in Dallas.

Terrell Williams, chairman of Truett-McConnell’s trustees, said in a news release, “It’s a great day in the life of Truett-McConnell College and Georgia Baptists. The TMC Board of Trustees is extremely excited about the future of our school under the leadership of Dr. Emir Caner.”

Bucky Kennedy, president of the Georgia Baptist Convention, said Caner will “bring to Truett-McConnell a level of Christian education that will raise the bar academically but also manifest itself in the life of the students.” J. Robert White, executive director of the Georgia convention, described Caner as “a scholar, a professor, a writer, a preacher and an experienced administrator—a powerful combination of gifts. At the same time, he has a vibrant personality and is easy to know.”

Caner said his vision is to build the college of nearly 500 students into “a nationally recognized college that is based on the Word of God.”

While affirming the institution’s liberal arts foundation, he said Truett-McConnell’s goal must be to “thoroughly equip students to engage the culture with a distinctively Christian and Baptist worldview.”

He added that in time, and in line with accreditation approval, the college will be offering more Bible classes and other curriculum “that equips students to engage the culture with a dynamic witness that changes the world by changing lives.”