The four finalists for president of the University of Maine will make campus visits beginning later this month.

The candidates were selected from a pool of 67 applicants in a national search that began last year.

They are Amit Chakma, president and vice chancellor of the University of Western Ontario; Joan Ferrini-Mundy, chief operation officer of the National Science Foundation; Sally Reis, who holds the Letitia Neag Morgan Endowed Chair in Educational Psychology and is a professor at the University of Connecticut; and Nancy Targett, provost of the University of New Hampshire.

The candidates will visit the flagship campus in Orono between Feb. 20 and March 2. The university will hold open sessions with the candidates for faculty, staff, students and community members. Each candidate also will meet with various university leaders and board members and also visit the University of Maine at Machias.

“Each brings a wealth of professional experience, strong leadership skills, and the vision to successfully lead UMaine during this time of dynamic change in public higher education, workforce development and increasingly fierce enrollment competition,” Gregory Johnson, chairman of the 18-member UMaine President Search Committee and a member of the University of Maine System board of trustees, said in a statement.

Whoever is chosen will replace Susan Hunter, who became the first woman to serve as University of Maine president in July 2014, when she took a two-year appointment. In 2016, the university system extended her appointment through June 30, 2018.


Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.