PCLA Board Transitions for the 2018-19 Academic Year
The PCLA is proud to announce the elections of Bryn Mawr College president Kimberly W. Cassidy, PhD, and Muhlenberg College president John I. Williams Jr., JD, to two year terms as chair and vice-chair, respectively, of the PCLA Board of Presidents. President Cassidy ascends to the chairship after serving two years as vice-chair, while President Williams joined the four person Executive Committee at the outset of the 2017-18 academic year. Juniata College president James A. Troha, PhD, will be continuing his service to the executive committee.
The Board itself will be welcoming a new president to the group when Franklin & Marshall College (F&M) president-elect Barbara K. Altmann, PhD, takes up her post in August. Eric W. Noll, MBA, is providing interim leadership at F&M as former president Daniel R. Porterfield, PhD, joined the Aspen Institute as president and CEO in June.
With these transitions, we say thank you to Gettysburg College president Janet Morgan Riggs, PhD, who served as the second chair of the PCLA Board for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 academic years. President Riggs will remain a member of the executive committee as past-chair, but will be concluding her service to the board with her retirement from the presidency of Gettysburg at the conclusion of the 2018-19 academic year.
The Pennsylvania Consortium for the Liberal Arts (PCLA), founded in 2014, is a consortium of eleven small liberal arts colleges across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania (Bryn Mawr, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg, Haverford, Juniata, Lafayette, Muhlenberg, Swarthmore, Ursinus, and Washington & Jefferson Colleges) serving ~20,000 undergraduate students.
The PCLA is governed by the eleven member Board of Presidents, which is in turn led by a four person Executive Committee. The daily administration of PCLA activities is guided by the implementation manager. The PCLA office is hosted by Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA with employment and financial services provided by Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA.