Bay Path University welcomes its sixth president

March 4, 2020 | Sarah Heinonen
sarah@thereminder.com

Bay Path University President-Elect Sandra Doran addresses a room of students, faculty and trustees.
Reminder Publishing photo by Sarah Heinonen

LONGMEADOW – “I welcome you to our family, our community,” outgoing Bay Path University President Dr. Carol Leary told President-Elect Sandra Doran at a welcoming ceremony in the campus’s Blake Student Commons on Feb. 27.

Doran, who is currently the president of Salem Academy and College in Winston-Salem, NC, will be taking the reins at Bay Path when Leary retires in June after 25 years as the school’s president.

“We are going to be in good hands with Sandy Doran,” Leary told those gathered for the occasion. She said Doran has the “tenacity” and “vision” to lead the school, which has a student population of over 3,300. Leary thanked the Bay Path community for being supportive over her 25 years as president at the university.

Doran was selected by a unanimous vote of the  Presidential Search Committee after an extensive 10–month search. She  will be the University’s sixth president since its founding in 1897.

Patricia Pierce, co-chair of the Presidential Search Committee and past chair of the Board of Trustees said that they were “looking for a person who is worthy of Bay Path.” Traits she said they sought in candidates included a commitment to women’s education, diversity, inclusion, equity, leadership skills, and “the ability to guide the school through the choppy waters facing higher education.”

Prior to her tenure at Salem Academy and College, Doran was chief executive officer at Castle Point Learning Systems (CPLS), which creates teaching and learning technologies using state-of-the-art intelligence. She has served in top administrative positions at the American College of Education in Indianapolis, IN, and Lesley University in Cambridge.

“I am honored and humbled by the faith you have placed in me,” Doran said, addressing the crowd. She said she is looking forward “to being responsible for the 21st century needs of our students.”

Doran said, “the joy of learning,” connects the Bay Path community and, under her leadership, the school will continue to strive to be “university of choice,” for undergraduate women, graduate students and life-long learners.

Share this: