News

Colleges That Prepared the Most First-Time Presidents to Lead Other Institutions, 2012-18

Almanac 2018

August 19, 2018

Of the 20 colleges that produced at least three first-time presidents or chancellors since July 2012, seven had enrollments of fewer than 10,000 students. The second-smallest institution on the list, Mount St. Mary’s University, in Maryland, also had the highest ratio of first-time presidents per 100 full-time managers. For the most part, the 12 private nonprofit colleges and eight public colleges that produced the highest numbers of new presidents tended to have most of them chosen to lead institutions in the same sector. The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor was a notable exception: The five new presidents it groomed all took the helm at private colleges. See accompanying article.

We're sorry. Something went wrong.

We are unable to fully display the content of this page.

The most likely cause of this is a content blocker on your computer or network.

Please allow access to our site, and then refresh this page. You may then be asked to log in, create an account if you don't already have one, or subscribe.

If you continue to experience issues, please contact us at 202-466-1032 or help@chronicle.com

Return to the Almanac home page, or go to the Profession, Students, Finance, or States section. To purchase a copy of the Almanac in print or as a downloadable interactive PDF, visit the Chronicle Store. Help guide us to give you the data you need by taking our 10-minute online Almanac survey.

Rank	Institution	First-time presidents originated	Full-time managers, fall 2016	First-time presidents per 100 managers	Enrollment, fall 2016	Appointments
1.	Harvard U.	7	1,949	0.4	29,908	Kathleen McCartney, dean of the Graduate School of Education, to Smith College (2012) * D.E. Lorraine Sterritt, dean of administration for Harvard College, to Salem Academy and College (2014) * Julio Frenk, dean of the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, to U. of Miami (2015) * Paula A. Johnson, chief of women’s health at Harvard Medical School, to Wellesley College (2016) * Michael Ignatieff, professor of practice in the John F. Kennedy School of Government, to Central European U., in Hungary (2016) * James E. Ryan, dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, to U. of Virginia (2017) * David A. Thomas, professor of business administration, to Morehouse College (2017)
2.	Arizona State U.	5	1,111	0.5	51,869	Kwang-Wu Kim, dean and director of the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, to Columbia College Chicago (2013) * Mariko Silver, senior adviser to the president, to Bennington College (2013) * Quentin D. Wheeler, founding director of the International Institute for Species Exploration, to State U. of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (2013) * Gordon Knox, director of the ASU Art Museum, to San Francisco Art Institute (2016) * Thom Reilly, director of the Morrison Institute for Public Policy, to Nevada System of Higher Education (2017)
2.	U. of Chicago	5	1,271	0.4	15,775	David A. Greene, executive vice president, to Colby College (2013) * Thomas F. Rosenbaum, provost, to California Institute of Technology (2013) * Michael H. Schill, dean of the Law School, to U. of Oregon (2015) * Mark R. Nemec, dean of the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies, to Fairfield U. (2017) * Sian Leah Beilock, executive vice provost, to Barnard College (2017)
2.	U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor	5	1,592	0.3	44,718	Philip J. Hanlon, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, to Dartmouth College (2012) * Timothy P. Slottow, executive vice president and chief financial officer, to U. of Phoenix (2014) * Martha E. Pollack, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, to Cornell U. (2016) * David C. Munson Jr., former dean of engineering, to Rochester Institute of Technology (2017) * Alison Davis-Blake, former dean of business, to Bentley U. (2018)
5.	U. of Kansas	4	448	0.9	27,565	Danny J. Anderson, dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, to Trinity U., in Texas (2014) * Jeffrey S. Vitter, provost and executive vice chancellor, to U. of Mississippi (2015) * Timothy C. Caboni, vice chancellor for public affairs, to Western Kentucky U. (2017) * Neeli Bendapudi, provost, to U. of Louisville (2018)
5.	U. of Pennsylvania	4	1,953	0.2	24,960	Brian L. Strom, executive vice dean of institutional affairs for the School of Medicine, to Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences (2013) * Michael A. Fitts, dean of the Law School, to Tulane U. (2014) * Vincent Price, provost, to Duke U. (2016) * Harlan M. Sands, vice dean and chief financial officer of the Wharton School, to Cleveland State U. (2018)
5.	Williams College	4	131	3.1	2,150	Nancy A. Roseman, director of the Williams-Exeter Programme at the U. of Oxford, to Dickinson College (2012) * Edward B. Burger, professor of mathematics, to Southwestern U., in Texas (2013) * Sarah Bolton, dean of the college, to College of Wooster (2015) * William C. Dudley, provost, to Washington and Lee U. (2016)
8.	Bethune-Cookman U.	3	80	3.8	3,934	Dwaun J. Warmack, senior vice president for administration and student services, to Harris-Stowe State U. (2014) * Makola M. Abdullah, provost and senior vice president, to Virginia State U. (2015) * Hakim J. Lucas, vice president for institutional advancement, to Virginia Union U. (2017)
8.	Brown U.	3	514	0.6	9,781	Katherine Bergeron, dean of the college, to Connecticut College (2013) * Mark Schlissel, provost, to U. of Michigan (2014) * Maud S. Mandel, dean of the college, to Williams College (2018)
8.	California State U. at Fresno	3	95	3.2	24,405	William A. Covino, provost, to California State U. at Los Angeles (2013) * Cynthia Teniente-Matson, vice president for administration and chief financial officer, to Texas A&M U. at San Antonio (2014) * Lynnette Zelezny, provost, to California State U. at Bakersfield (2018)
8.	Fairfield U.	3	87	3.4	5,137	The Rev. Paul J. Fitzgerald, senior vice president for academic affairs, to U. of San Francisco (2014) * Mark C. Reed, senior vice president for administration and chief of staff, to Saint Joseph’s U., in Pennsylvania (2015) * Lynn M. Babington, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, to Chaminade U. of Honolulu (2017)
8.	Houston Community College	3	197	1.5	57,032	Arthur Q. Tyler, former deputy chancellor and chief operating officer, to City College of San Francisco (2013) * Kimberly Beatty, vice chancellor for instructional services and chief academic officer, to Metropolitan Community College, in Missouri (2017) * Jesus Roberto Rodriguez, dean of the Business Center of Excellence, to Texas Southmost College (2017)
8.	Loyola U. Maryland	3	201	1.5	6,084	Timothy Law Snyder, former vice president for academic affairs, to Loyola Marymount U. (2015) * Susan Donovan, executive vice president, to Bellarmine U. (2017) * Marc M. Camille, vice president for enrollment management and communications, to Albertus Magnus College (2017)
8.	Mount St. Mary’s U. (Md.)	3	67	4.5	2,186	David W. Bushman, dean of the School of Natural Science and Mathematics, to Bridgewater College (2013) * The Rev. Stuart Swetland, vice president for Catholic identity and director of pre-theology, to Donnelly College (2014) * Karl W. Einolf, dean of the Richard J. Bolte Sr. School of Business, to Indiana Institute of Technology (2016)
8.	New York U.	3	1,568	0.2	50,550	Joseph H.H. Weiler, professor of law, to European University Institute, in Italy (2012) * Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean emerita of the Tisch School of the Arts, to Spelman College (2015) * G. Gabrielle Starr, dean of the College of Arts and Science, to Pomona College (2016)
8.	Oberlin College	3	118	2.5	2,912	Sean Decatur, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, to Kenyon College (2013) * David H. Stull, dean of the Conservatory, to San Francisco Conservatory of Music (2013) * Michael Frandsen, vice president for finance and administration, to Wittenberg U. (2017)
8.	Southern Methodist U.	3	625	0.5	11,739	William M. Tsutsui, dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, to Hendrix College (2013) * José Antonio Bowen, dean of the Meadows School of the Arts, to Goucher College (2014) * David J. Chard, dean of the Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education and Human Development, to Wheelock College (2016)
8.	U. of Oklahoma at Norman	3	333	0.9	27,918	Kenneth Evans, dean of the Michael F. Price College of Business, to Lamar U. (2013) * Michael A. Scaperlanda, professor of law, to St. Gregory’s U. (2016) * Kelly Damphousse, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, to Arkansas State U. at Jonesboro (2017)
8.	U. of Virginia	3	930	0.3	23,898	W. Taylor Reveley IV, managing director of the Miller Center, to Longwood U. (2013) * John D. Simon, executive vice president and provost, to Lehigh U. (2014) * Meredith Woo, former dean of the college and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, to Sweet Briar College (2017)
8.	U. of West Florida	3	266	1.1	12,966	Kyle Marrero, vice president for university advancement, to U. of West Georgia (2013) * Brendan Kelly, vice president for university advancement, to U. of South Carolina Upstate (2016) * Jay Clune, interim graduate dean, to Nicholls State U. (2017)

Note: Institutions ranked here are ones where new presidents or chancellors held their most-recent previous academic position, either just before or not long before assuming, for the first time, a post as chief executive of another degree-granting institution or higher-education system in the United States or abroad. The first-time appointees as college chief executives are listed with their title at the originating institution, the name of the institution at which they took the helm, and the year the appointment was announced. Appointees with multiple titles at the originating institution may be listed only by the highest-level position. Appointments in which the previous position was acting or interim president or chancellor were excluded. Also excluded from the analysis were internal appointments to the top post. Different campuses of a system or district are considered separately for the ranking. Tied institutions are listed alphabetically. All three first-time presidents who moved to their top posts from Houston Community College held district-level positions there. Managers include medical staff. Data for this table are derived from more than 1,700 presidential appointments that were published in The Chronicle’s Gazette section from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2018. Questions or comments on the Almanac should be sent to the Almanac editor.

Source: Chronicle analysis of Chronicle Gazette data

Correction (8/28/2018, 11:55 a.m.): One of the first-time presidents from the University of Chicago who was mentioned in the original table, Sara Ray Stoelinga, withdrew her acceptance of the job after she was appointed as president of Carroll University. The table has been corrected, and the University of Chicago is now credited with launching five first-time presidents rather than six.