The next president of Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU)—now the largest member of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU)–is someone whose ties to the Marion, Indiana, school go back quite a few years. Most of his life, in fact.
An inside pick, IWU provost David Wright will become IWU's ninth president on July 1, succeeding Henry L. Smith, who announced his retirement last October. Smith now will serve a two-year term as IWU's chancellor.
Wright has been deeply involved in helping IWU grow to its current size of almost 16,000 enrolled students. According to a press release, "Wright led [IWU's] entry into online education and initiated the regional campus development strategy that helped IWU become Indiana's largest private university."
It wasn't always that way–for example, when Wright first arrived on campus. That was back in the 1970s, when Wright attended IWU as an undergraduate. He also spent about 11 years in various faculty roles at the school between 1994 and 2005.
Wright then returned to IWU as provost after serving as dean of the School of Theology at Azusa Pacific University until 2008.
IWU isn't the only CCCU school to undergo a recent leadership transition. Trustees at nearby Huntington University recently elected Sherilyn Emberton as the first female president in school history. Of the 111 CCCU member schools in North America, only 6 schools currently have female presidents. In addition, the CCCU itself also recently inaugurated a new president, Edward Blews Jr.
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