Dr. Jim Murdaugh has spent his career leading people and organizations through change, challenge, and opportunity.
His professional experience spans higher education, local law enforcement, state government, and the military —giving him a distinctive perspective on leadership and the difficult decisions that come with it.
A nationally recognized higher education leader and workforce innovator, Jim has served as president of Tallahassee State College since 2010. His professional experience also spans local law enforcement, state government, and the military — giving him a distinctive perspective on leadership, organizational culture, and the difficult decisions that come with both.
Under his leadership, Tallahassee State College has experienced transformational growth and earned national recognition for student success, innovation, and workforce advancement. The College has been recognized among the nation’s top community colleges by the Aspen Institute, earned multiple National Innovation of the Year awards from the League for Innovation in the Community College, and been named one of the Most Promising Places to Work in Community Colleges multiple times. TSC is also the No. 1 transfer institution to both Florida State University and Florida A&M University.
Jim’s leadership extends well beyond the College. He has served civic, business, economic development, and statewide organizations, while mentoring leaders across the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. His commitment to innovation and entrepreneurial leadership earned him recognition as the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship’s Entrepreneurial President of the Year. He has also been recognized multiple times by Florida Trend as one of the state’s 500 most influential business leaders and by the News Service of Florida as one of its 50 Over 50 leaders making a lasting impact across the state.
Education and Leadership Development
Jim holds bachelor's and master's degrees in criminology and a doctorate in public administration from Florida State University.
He is also a graduate of Leadership Florida Executive Class VII and Harvard University's Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Meet Jim
The Idea Behind the Book
Sometimes leaders must choose what they want to regret.
One experience in particular came to embody a leadership philosophy Jim had developed over the course of his career.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Michael in 2018, TSC faculty and staff were facing damaged homes, prolonged power outages, food loss, fuel shortages, and other hardships. Jim authorized emergency assistance for employees, prompting a question from his then chief of staff: What if someone asked for help who didn't truly need it?
Jim considered the alternative.
Would they rather regret helping someone who may not have needed it—or regret failing to help someone who did?
That idea became the inspiration for Choose What You Want to Regret: Leadership That Matters, a book shaped not only by Jim’s own experiences, but also by decades spent mentoring leaders confronting personal challenges, competing priorities, organizational change, and decisions fr which there is no perfect answer.
His approach to leadership is grounded in a simple belief: difficult decisions almost always involve trafeoffs. Good leadership requires the judgement to understand those tradeoffs, the courage to make a choice, and the willingness to accept responsibility for what follows.