A dean at the University of San Diego will become the next president of Oglethorpe University.
Nicholas Ladany was introduced as the college's 17th president at an event on campus Wednesday afternoon. Ladany is currently the dean of the USD School of Leadership and Education Sciences and the associate provost for academic research.
He is set to take over July 1. Current President Lawrence Schall announced last April that he plans to step down at the end of June 2020 after leading the private college for 15 years.
“To serve as the president of Oglethorpe University is both humbling and the greatest professional honor of my life,” Ladany told the crowd at Oglethorpe’s Conant Performing Arts Center.
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He has a background in counseling psychology and has previously worked at Santa Clara University, Loyola Marymount University and Lehigh University.
Introducing Ladany, Student Body President Glenn Kaiser said he is an internationally known scholar and author who worked to promote and increase diversity in his previous university roles.
“We must celebrate our collective success and offer honest appraisals about where we can go next,” Ladany said.
Credit: Courtesy of Oglethorpe University
Credit: Courtesy of Oglethorpe University
He said Oglethorpe is “without question a very special place.” He also gave a shout-out to the women’s basketball team, which is currently playing in the NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship.
Born in Washington, D.C., to immigrant parents, Ladany was the first in his family to go to college.
Oglethorpe underwent an international search to find the school’s next president. Out of the final four candidates, Ladany was a unanimous choice among the school’s trustees, said Katharine Zakos, who was part of the search committee.
Located on Peachtree Road in Brookhaven, the liberal arts college was founded in 1835 and now enrolls nearly 1,400 students.
