President Dr. Susan Schultz Huxman has announced her retirement from Eastern Mennonite University effective at the end of the 2024-2025 academic year. Dr. Huxman is completing her second term and will retire after having served nine years as EMU’s ninth president and first woman president.
At a town hall on Friday for faculty and staff, Dr. Huxman said: “What a joy and privilege it is to serve EMU every day, to run the good race and keep the faith, [but] I think it’s time for me to round the last lap and lean into the finish line.” Dr. Huxman shared both personal and professional reasons for making the decision to retire.
During her tenure, Dr. Huxman advanced the university’s strategic direction; created a more welcoming and inclusive community; sharpened EMU’s mission, vision and values; and leaned into its Anabaptist heritage and core scriptural mandate to “do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.” (Micah 6:8) Dr. Huxman led the university in setting a fundraising record during EMU’s Centennial year and is now steering EMU through the second year of its first-ever comprehensive campaign for people, programs and facilities, Forward Together: Preparing Tomorrow’s Unifying Leaders 2023-2028. A new state-of-the-art track & field complex will be dedicated at Homecoming and Family Weekend 2024.
“Dr. Huxman has provided many years of dedicated leadership to EMU, including stability and guidance through the global pandemic. Her contributions will have a lasting impact on the university, and on behalf of the EMU Board of Trustees, I am forever grateful for her extraordinary service,” said board chair Manuel Nuñez.
Nuñez added that Dr. Huxman, who was elected 2025 chair of the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Chamber of Commerce, “has engaged with and promoted the compelling stories of EMU’s finest ambassadors… students, faculty, staff, board members, donors, alumni, and community members.” This championing has resulted in an increased visibility and profile for EMU in Harrisonburg, across Virginia, and beyond.
Dr. Huxman has served for more than 35 years in higher education in a variety of academic and leadership roles including as president of Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, from 2011-2016 and as director of the Elliott School of Communication at Wichita State University from 2004-2011. She began her academic career at Wake Forest University. Dr. Huxman has been on the board of Mennonite Education Agency (MEA) and of Western District Conference of Mennonite Church USA. Dr. Huxman holds a bachelor of arts in English from Bethel College (Kansas) and a master of arts and PhD in communication from the University of Kansas.
The board will immediately move to form a search committee for an interim president who is expected to start on July 1, 2025.
Rooted in the values of academic excellence, peace and justice, and an active faith shaped by Anabaptist-Mennonite beliefs and practices, Eastern Mennonite University offers undergraduate, graduate and seminary degrees that prepare students to serve and lead in a global context. A leader among faith-based universities, EMU was founded in 1917 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and has a site in Lancaster, Pennsylvania; students can study in person or online.
Thank you very much for leading Eastern Mennonite University as a president. I happened to be a graduate student at the Eastern Mennonite Seminary and Eastern Mennonite University between 2007 to 2010. Since I came from Kenya I really gained a lot from the professors and the community. I hope many of the students and the faculty at the University are making difference in students lives. Your time and legacy as the Eastern Mennonite University president will be best remembered world wide by the international students who studied at the university. May God bless you abundantly at the time of your retirement.