WEST LIBERTY, W.Va., April 11, 2023 — West Liberty University’s Presidential Search Committee announced the names of its four final candidates today. These candidates will visit campus over the next few weeks.
“I am pleased to announce that we have four strong candidates for the next president of West Liberty University. The Search Committee looks forward to introducing these leaders to our campus community and to the public as we begin the final steps in the extensive process of finding a president,” said Thomas Cervone, who is the chairman of the Search Committee, an active alumnus and member of the Board of Governors.
The national search for a president resulted in 59 applications. The four finalists were selected after Zoom interviews with the Search Committee and professional consultants from AGB Search.
The finalists include one woman and three men and each candidate will visit campus and follow an agenda that includes: dinner, campus tours and interviews with faculty, staff, students and others. The candidates and bios include:
Dr. Tim Borchers has 18 years of higher education administrative experience and is currently vice president for Academic Affairs at Peru State College (Neb.), the oldest college in the state with an enrollment of approximately 2,000. In this role, he collaborates with deans, faculty and staff to provide a personalized, engaging, and transformative educational experience for a diverse student population.
During his time in this position, Peru State has achieved its highest first-year retention rate in the past 30 years and has enrolled two of the largest first-year student classes in the past 30 years. Borchers spearheaded the campus’ migration to new retention software and motivated faculty to use the software to provide regular updates on students’ academic progress. The college has added new academic programs and partnerships to prepare students to meet workforce needs.
Borchers provided leadership so that the public college received continuing accreditation status with the Higher Learning Commission in 2022. He has also led the assessment of academic and general education programs while providing support to co-curricular assessment efforts. He led efforts to create the Research and Creativity Expo, revises the Honors program and administers Study Abroad programs. He is currently leading the planning process to improve success rates for all Peru State students.
He previously served as the dean of the College of Arts, Media, and Communication at Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM), from 2008-2015, where he fostered partnerships with Forum Communications to develop applied learning opportunities with the Fargo Forum newspaper and with the James Sewell Ballet to provide performance opportunities for dance students. He engaged alumni and patrons in fundraising and sponsorship opportunities, from New York to Minneapolis to Los Angeles.
Before serving as dean, Borchers was the Founding Chair of the Communication Studies Department at MSUM. He also served as associate dean of the College of Arts and Humanities and the College of Social and Natural Sciences. As a faculty member at MSUM, he taught courses in communication and rhetorical theory, coached the university’s speech team, and supported student research.
Borchers holds a doctoral degree in communication from Wayne State University (Detroit). He also holds a master’s degree in communication from Wayne State and a bachelor’s degree in Speech Communication from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
He is the author of the book “Persuasion in the Media Age,” which is in its fourth edition and co-author of “Rhetorical Theory: An Introduction,” now in its second edition. Borchers visits campus April 19 – 21.
Dr. David Christiansen serves as the chancellor of Penn State York, a position he began on August 1, 2018. He joined Penn State in 2004 as a senior associate dean for Academic Affairs at Penn State Erie. In 2013, he was appointed the Associate Vice President and Senior Associate Dean for the Penn State Commonwealth Campuses, overseeing the academic mission of 20 Penn State campuses, along with its 30,000 students and 1,700 full-time faculty members.
His responsibilities included academic programs, enrollment management, digital and distance learning, continuing education, learning assessment, education abroad, and serving as the primary campus representative with multiple University central offices.
Over the course of his career at Penn State, Dr. Christiansen has overseen the development of more than 90 academic programs. He co-chaired Penn State’s Enhanced Education Pathways committee, which created several programs to increase the enrollment, retention, and graduation rates of first-generation and low-income students. He worked with the University’s Development Office to create the Open Doors Program, which raised more than $650 million in endowments and programming across the University to support access and affordability programs for undergraduate students.
As chancellor, his accomplishments include the development of a new strategic plan, a successful capital campaign, the building of the Graham Center for Innovation and Collaboration, the development of DEI initiatives such as the Center for Inclusive Leadership, and multiple community partnerships, including the Penn State York LaunchBox for early-stage entrepreneurs.
Before his start at Penn State University, Christiansen was a professor of Classics, director of Interdisciplinary Studies, and dean of the Joseph Baldwin Academy at Truman State University (Mo.). He earned his bachelor’s degree in History and Latin from Texas Tech University and his master’s and doctoral degrees in Classics at the University of Wisconsin.
His primary research interest revolves around late Republican/early imperial Latin historians. He is particularly interested in strategies by which Latin historians utilized identity, rhetoric and imagery when writing about the past to comment on contemporary events. Christiansen visits campus April 25-27.
Dr. Kelly Ryan became interim chancellor of Indiana University (IU) Southeast in July 2022, becoming the eighth chancellor and fourth woman chancellor to serve the campus.
She began her career at IU Southeast in 2007 as assistant professor of history and was named a full professor in 2019. In 2020, Ryan became the chief academic officer as executive vice chancellor for Academic Affairs where she had oversight over the university’s quality and development of all academic and noncredit programs, the university’s accreditation process and the recruitment, evaluation, promotion and tenure of faculty and other academic personnel.
Prior to that, she served as coordinator of the Gender and Women’s Studies program from 2011-2013, coordinator of the History Department from 2014-1016, and dean of the School of Social Sciences from 2016-2020.
Among other accolades, she has received the IU Trustees Teaching Award four times, as well as the Indiana Zeta Honored Professor Award.
Ryan holds three degrees in history, a bachelor’s degree from George Mason University, a master’s degree from Boston College, and a doctoral degree from the University of Maryland. Prior to joining IU Southeast, Ryan was a lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Maryland in College Park.
Ryan has published widely in the field of Early American history, and has authored two books: “Everyday Crimes: Social Violence” and “Civil Rights in Early America.” She has also lent her expertise on colonial America to The Learning Channel’s popular genealogy program, “Who Do You Think You Are?”.
Ryan’s record of service to Indiana University and IU Southeast, includes membership in the IU Regional Campus Cabinet and the Vision 2030 Task Force organized by the IU Office of Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs. Beyond her academic pursuits and publishing, Ryan has served as a volunteer with the Homeless Coalition in New Albany, Ind., and on the Academic Advisory Board for the Frazier International Museum of History in Louisville, Ky. Ryan visits campus April 16 – April 18.
Dr. Robert T. Smith is provost and vice president for Academic Affairs and Professor of Mathematics at Valdosta State University (Ga.), leading a dynamic team of more than 500 faculty and staff, providing undergraduate through doctoral degree programs that enroll more than 10,000 students. His focus has been on student success, especially through expanding experiential learning opportunities, thereby improving retention and graduation rates, particularly among underrepresented students.
Prior to his service at Valdosta State, Smith served as provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Armstrong State University in Savannah, Ga. (now part of Georgia Southern University). Previously, he served Millersville University of Pennsylvania in a succession of roles, including associate professor and professor of mathematics, chair of the Department of Mathematics and dean of Science and Mathematics.
He began his career as assistant professor of Mathematics at Virginia Tech and also served as a researcher at the U.S. Army Ballistic Research Laboratory at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.
A Pennsylvania native, Smith earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Mathematics from the University of Delaware, as well as bachelor degrees in mathematics and German from Widener College (now Widener University). More recently, he earned certificates from the Institute for Management and Leadership in Education at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and the Becoming a Provost Academy, sponsored by the American Academic Leadership Institute.
Smith’s research is in mathematical problems arising in engineering and physics; he is also the co-author of 10 textbooks on calculus, several of which have been translated into multiple languages and which are in use around the world. Smith visits April 23 – April 25.
After the candidates visit campus and meet with alumni, staff, students, faculty and the public, the search committee will reconvene and evaluate the campus interviews with the assistance of AGB Search.
The committee then presents its final recommendations to the Board of Governors, who makes the final selection and forwards the name to the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (WVHEPC) for its seal of approval.
WLU hopes to have a president on board sometime in late spring, with an expected date of contract to begin July 1, 2023.
WLU’s Presidential Search Committee is composed of all members of the Board of Governors plus two additional faculty representatives, one dean, three additional staff members, two WLU Foundation members (also alumni). Also serving as a non-voting, ex-officio member is Dr. Sarah Tucker, chancellor of the WVHEPC.
To review the complete CVs of the four candidates, please click below.