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College to host four finalists for president
Each will meet public at St. Mary's Hall
Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009
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The four finalists to become the next president of St. Mary's College of Maryland include a former public college provost, a former congressman from Florida, a private women's college president and a private college provost.
Each finalist will visit the campus over the next two weeks and hold meet-and-greet forums for students, faculty, alumni and the public, according to college spokesperson Marc Apter, who released names of the candidates Monday.
The St. Mary's College trustee committee in charge of the presidential search will likely make a recommendation to the full trustee board at its Oct. 3 meeting for a vote on the new president.
Before that vote, the forums to meet each candidate and give feedback will be held at 5:30 p.m. at St. Mary's Hall on Sept. 17, 22, 24 and 29.
Katherine S. Conway-Turner will be the first finalist to visit the campus. She was expected to arrive today, Wednesday.
Conway-Turner is the founder and head of Leaders Across Boundaries, a consulting company for higher education institutions, Apter said.
At the end of the fall 2008 college semester, Conway-Turner left her position as provost and vice president of academic affairs at State University of New York at Geneseo after 4 years to start the company.
As the chief academic officer, she oversaw 21 academic departments, computing and information technology, libraries, college research and other programs at Geneseo, a public college with more than 5,000 students.
According to several other college Web sites, Conway-Turner was a finalist for president of Columbus State University in the summer of 2008, provost of Towson University earlier this year and president of the College of Charleston in 2006.
Conway-Turner has authored or co-authored dozens of journal articles and chapters in scholarly publications, and has presented professional papers on issues facing older women and African-American women, according to her biography from Geneseo.
Next to visit will be James Bacchus, a former Democratic congressman from Florida from 1991 to 1995. He will be on campus from Sept. 21 to 23.
After representing Florida's 11th District in the House of Representatives, he served on the appellate body of the World Trade Organization in Geneva, which he eventually chaired.
For the last five years, Bacchus has served as chairman of the Global Trade and Investment Practice Group at an international law firm based in Miami.
In 2007, Bacchus was named to a Department of Defense panel to review the practices at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
MaryAnn Baenninger is the president of the College of St. Benedict in Minnesota, where she recently finished an $80 million capital campaign, according to Apter. She will be at St. Mary's College from Sept. 23 to 25.
Baenninger is a private college, similar in size to St. Mary's College with about 1,800 students. St. Benedict is a joint institution with St. John's University, a men's Catholic college of about 2,000 students. The two colleges share one academic program, and students attend classes together, but they have two separate administrations that work conjunctively.
Baenninger applied for the position of president at Ithaca College and was named one of three finalists last year before dropping out as a candidate, according to that college's newspaper.
Most recently she was a senior staff member of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education in Philadelphia, a non-governmental, peer-based membership association.
Joseph W. Bruno is the vice president for academic affairs and provost as well as a professor of chemistry at Wesleyan University in Middleton, Conn. He will be the last finalist to visit the campus and will arrive on Sept. 28.
He earned his doctorate in 1983 from Northwestern University and started as a professor at Wesleyan the following year. The private college has more than 3,000 students on a 360-acre campus.
He worked to develop interdisciplinary courses so faculty and students can recognize the value of science in other aspects of learning.
Bruno is on the board of directors for the American Conference of Academic Deans.
According to Molly Mahoney, college trustee and presidential search committee chair, the college's search committee met with 12 candidates in July after reviewing more than 100 resumes. She encouraged students and others involved with the college to attend the upcoming forums and give feedback into the selection process.
Maggie O'Brien early this year announced that she would be stepping down as president at St. Mary's College of Maryland after 13 years. O'Brien is now on sabbatical and plans to take a new position at the college as a professor overseeing St. Mary's College's role in a partnership with the Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies in Oxford, England.
Meet the finalists
The four presidential finalists for St. Mary's College of Maryland will be at open forums at St. Mary's Hall at 5:30 p.m. on the following dates:
Katherine Conway-Turner: Thursday, Sept. 17
James Bacchus: Tuesday, Sept. 22
MaryAnn Baenninger: Thursday, Sept. 24
Joseph Bruno: Tuesday, Sept. 29
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