President

Colby-Sawyer College has selected Dr. Dean G. McCurdy, provost and vice president for academic affairs at Ivy Tech Community College, as the institution’s 10^th president. His appointment will begin on June 1^st.

In his role as Provost, he succeeded in achieving record growth in enrollment, student retention and college completions. He led a successful campus capital campaign, and effected improvements in student success using an experiential, liberal arts approach to education combined with a focus on workforce development.  Prior to becoming provost at Ivy Tech, the nation’s largest singly accredited community college system comprising 19 campuses across Indiana, McCurdy was chancellor for its Kokomo location. In that role, he led record fundraising and managed the Kokomo Transformation Project, a redesign and renovation of the campus.

McCurdy’s extensive and multifaceted career in higher education started at Bowdoin College in Maine, where he was field manager of the Coastal Studies Center and a visiting professor of biology. At Albion College, a private liberal arts school in Michigan focused on career preparation, he was a tenured professor, chaired the biology department, directed an honors program and led efforts focused on experiential learning and community engagement for students. Following his tenure at Albion, McCurdy worked at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, where he was associate vice president for instruction. While there, he founded the Bronson Healthy Living Campus in Michigan, a partnership between Kalamazoo Valley Community College and regional healthcare providers.

As an ecologist, McCurdy has authored 20 peer-reviewed scientific papers on fish, crustaceans, shorebirds and turtles living in coastal and inland environments in Maine, Nova Scotia and Suriname, South America.

McCurdy is a first-generation college graduate. He earned a doctorate in biology from Carleton University in Ontario and a bachelor’s degree with honors in biology from Acadia University in Nova Scotia.

Read the full announcement here.

Phillip Petree and Jackie Mildner led this search with Liz Braun and Ryan Smillie.