Topeka ? The Kansas Board of Regents on Friday selected former Kansas Education Commissioner Andy Tompkins as the new regents president and chief executive officer.

Tompkins will replace Reginald Robinson who is leaving to take a job at Washburn University.

Tompkins was the longest serving Kansas education commissioner, serving from 1996 to 2005. He left that job when the State Board of Education was in the middle of a battle over teaching evolution.

He then joined the Kansas University faculty where he was an associate professor in the School of Education’s educational leadership program. In 2007, he joined Pittsburg State University as the dean of the College of Education.

Robinson is stepping down to become a law professor and director of the Center for Law and Government at Washburn University. He will leave the regents at the end of June.

The regents interviewed Tompkins Friday and then offered him the job. His pay and benefits have not been finalized.