Interim President Search

Eastern Mennonite University’s Board of Trustees is seeking an innovative and collaborative interim president to take office on July 1, 2025 and serve for a minimum of two years. 

LEADERSHIP AGENDA

• Strengthen EMU’s mission focus, including its identity as an Anabaptist, peace and justice university, and its commitment to diversity, equity and belonging.
• Cast a strategic vision for EMU’s place in the changing higher education landscape.
• Tell EMU’s distinctive story through innovative and creative marketing expertise.
• Collaboratively lead the creation of a strategic business model to establish financial stability in the short term while building institutional strength and viability for the future.
• Manage the many changes that will be necessary to achieve these goals while building relationships among critical stakeholder groups.
• Support and promote a reimagined academic curriculum being led by the provost.

REQUIRED AND PREFERRED CHARACTERISTICS AND EXPERIENCE

• Committed Christian faith from an Anabaptist perspective and active engagement with a faith community.
• Working with existing senior leadership, they will support and galvanize EMU’s mission and vision among faculty and staff, preparing students to be peace and justice leaders at home, and around the world.
• Higher education leadership experience with a terminal degree preferred.
• Proven financial acumen and entrepreneurial and marketing success.
• Demonstrates a combination of humility and confidence, providing steady, trustworthy, and decisive leadership.
• Provide visible and consistent presence on the Harrisonburg campus, and travel for external stakeholder engagement is expected.

Founded in 1917, EMU is an educational institution of the Mennonite Church USA. The university offers rigorous academic study at the undergraduate, graduate, and seminary levels and confers degrees in the liberal arts, applied sciences, and professions. More than 2,000 students are enrolled in programs at three locations (main campus in Harrisonburg, VA; Lancaster, PA; and Washington DC) and online. For more information about EMU, please review About EMU or the latest President’s Annual Report.

Applications may be submitted in confidence to president.interim@emu.edu by including a letter of intent addressing how the candidate’s experiences match the position requirements, and a current CV or résumé. Please note that references will be requested at the interview stage. For full consideration by the search committee, applicant materials must be submitted by Monday, February 10, 2025. 

Confidential conversations about this opportunity may be arranged by contacting Search Committee co-chair and Trustee, Jane Peifer, at jane.peifer@emu.edu.

EMU is an equal opportunity employer, committed to enhancing diversity across the institution. Eastern Mennonite University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, or gender identity in administration of its employment and educational policies, scholarship and loan programs, athletic or other school-administered programs.