Grant H. Cornwell Named 15th President Of Rollins College
The Rollins College Board of Trustees has elected Grant H. Cornwell as the 15th president of Rollins College.
Cornwell, who currently serves as president of The College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, will begin his Rollins presidency July 1. President-elect Cornwell was officially introduced to the Rollins faculty, staff and students on Friday, February 20, in front of Mills Memorial Hall on the Rollins College campus.
“Grant Cornwell is a national and international champion of liberal education, an education especially tuned to Rollins’ mission of global citizenship and responsible leadership,” said David Lord, chairman of the Rollins College Board of Trustees. “He comes to Rollins after eight years as president of The College of Wooster, a top liberal arts college, where he was able to build a common vision through strategic planning and a collaborative approach that involved the entire college community. Cornwell’s skills will build on Rollins’ successes and grow the College’s reputation as a distinguished liberal arts college.”
Cornwell has been president of Wooster since 2007. Under his leadership, Wooster developed an ongoing approach to strategic planning that has helped the college adapt to the changing higher education environment. He is credited with advancing Wooster’s diversity and global engagement and with greatly strengthening new student recruitment efforts that have led to new records for admission applications for the last three years.
“Rollins is situated to be a global liberal arts college,” said Cornwell. “We bring faculty, students and staff together from very diverse backgrounds and points of view, and that is what creates excellence in liberal learning in the 21st century. What we understand to be liberal education is a much more dynamic and globally engaged project than it has been in the past, focusing on preparing students for lives of responsible leadership in a diverse and interdependent world. Rollins’ location provides educational opportunities that speak directly to this evolving mission. Everyone I’ve talked to has expressed a passion for the College and a driving desire to see it thrive and succeed. Rollins, with its four schools, resources and organizational structure, is positioned to make bold, forward progress.”
Cornwell’s appointment is the culmination of a national search that began last summer, following President Lewis Duncan’s stepping down as president in June. Craig McAllaster, former dean of Rollins’ Crummer Graduate School of Business, will continue his service as acting president until Cornwell takes office.
Nationally recognized for his work in defining a liberal arts education in a global environment, Cornwell serves on the Council on Foreign Relations’ Global Literacy Advisory Board. He is a member of the board of directors of the Association of American Colleges and Universities. He has also served on the American Council on Education’s Commission on International Initiatives and the national advisory panel for the Association of Governing Boards’ project on Faculty and Institutional Governance. He is a co-author of “An Education for the Twenty-First Century: Stewardship of the Global Commons,” which appeared in AAC&U’s Liberal Education, and has written extensively about multiculturalism, comparative race and racism, diversity, and global citizenship.
Cornwell is married to Marguerite (Peg) Kelsey Cornwell, who brings 23 years of professional college administration experience. At St. Lawrence, Peg served as director of career planning and subsequently as director of the Leadership Academy, a program devoted to developing students’ capacities for responsible leadership. At Wooster, Peg served as associate to the president for community, trustee and parent relations, creating a 250-member Parents Leadership Council and playing an active role in the college’s internal and external relations. The Cornwells approach his presidency as a partnership and look forward to becoming a part of the Rollins and Winter Park communities. They have two sons, Tosh and Kelsey.
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