Lisa Rossbacher, the president of Marietta’s Southern Polytechnic State University, has been named president of Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif.
She will step down from her SPSU position this summer and begin at the new school in July. Rossbacher succeeds Humboldt State’s president, who is retiring after 12 years in the position. She will be the university’s seventh — and first female — president, according to a statement issued by Humboldt.
Rossbacher, a geologist, was already slated to lose her job here next year when SPSU completes a consolidation with Kennesaw State University. KSU President Dan Papp will lead the new institution.
The Humboldt State announcement follows a long line of college leadership positions for which Rossbacher has pursued. Over the past few years, she has been named a finalist for positions at Southern Utah University, Wichita State University, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and New Mexico State University.
During Rossbacher’s tenure, which began in 1998, SPSU enrollment increased by 78 percent and new academic programs were added in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering, new media arts, and game design. During the same period, she helped increase campus diversity, and nearly 50 percent of students are now from traditionally underrepresented groups, according to information from the University System of Georgia.
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