The search for Elizabethtown College’s next president is underway as current President Elizabeth Rider is set to retire next June.
Following the announcement of Rider’s retirement on May 19, the Elizabethtown College Board of Trustees began the search for her replacement, establishing a Presidential Search Committee in early June. The committee is conducting the search in collaboration with AGB Search, a private executive search firm specializing in higher education institutions. The firm will assist the college throughout the search and candidate recruitment process as the committee works toward selecting Etown’s next leader.
The Presidential Search Committee is made up of current Etown faculty members, alumni association members and members of the College’s Board of Trustees. Tom McGonigle, Elizabethtown College Board of Trustees Vice-Chair, was named Search Committee Chair. McGonigle is a corporate attorney and has been a member of the College’s Board of Trustees for 14 years.
The Presidential Search Committee met periodically during the summer months to establish a tentative timeline and begin laying the groundwork for the search process. According to the timeline, which can be found on the college’s Presidential Search webpage, the process will continue throughout the remainder of 2026 before moving into its final stages. The college currently anticipates announcing its chosen candidate in early 2027, several months before Rider’s retirement takes effect.
The Elizabethtown College Board of Trustees is developing a presidential search profile using feedback collected through a series of listening sessions across campus. The profile is intended to represent the needs and priorities of the college community and inform the candidate recruitment and deliberation processes.
The most recent opportunity for community input was conducted in the form of a survey sent to Etown students and faculty. Respondents were asked to share their thoughts on the qualities they would like to see in the next president, challenges Rider’s successor will need to address and what they believe should be the college’s top priorities moving forward. At the end of the survey, respondents also had the opportunity to anonymously nominate a potential candidate for consideration.
Nicole Marques Bagoli, an international business major, was among the Etown students who participated in the survey.
“I’m really glad we were given the opportunity to give our opinion on Etown’s next president,” Marques Bagoli said. “I wanted to do the survey because it’s important to me to take advantage of opportunities like this that help to make our school the best it can be.”
The selection of the college’s next president comes as Etown prepares for its first presidential transition in several years. Rider joined the Etown community in 1988 as a Professor of Psychology before transitioning into a number of administrative leadership roles, including Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. She was sworn in as the college’s 16th president in 2022 after previously serving as president in an interim capacity.
According to a press release from the Elizabethtown College Office of Marketing and Communications, Rider has led the college through a period of “sustained growth, strengthening the institution academically, financially, and culturally.”
Etown’s next president will inherit several initiatives launched or expanded during Rider’s administration, including the $40 million Build Brighter Futures campaign.
Rider also oversaw the completion of the college’s previous five-year strategic plan and will spend the remaining months of her tenure helping launch its successor, Strategic Plan 2030, a comprehensive five-year plan set to launch this fall.
As the search progresses, the college plans to provide updates through its Presidential Search webpage, which is accessible through the college’s homepage. The search is expected to culminate with the announcement of Rider’s successor in early 2027. The selected candidate will become the 17th president in Etown’s 127-year history.
