Have an Opinion about Finding BU’s Next President? Search Committee Wants to Hear from You

With 16-member committee set, search gets underway, with plans for fall meetings with BU community

Photo of BU's campus. Image shows Marsh Plaza with green trees and a metal sculpture in the center.

As the search for BU’s next president gets underway, input from anyone is welcome. Photo by Cydney Scott

Search Committee

Have an Opinion about Finding BU’s Next President? Search Committee Wants to Hear from You

With 16-member committee set, search gets underway, includes plans for fall meetings with BU community

September 29, 2022
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If you have an opinion about the next president of Boston University—a candidate to be considered, certain personal or professional qualifications you think are important, the strategic priorities you want a new president to focus on—flex your fingers and get ready to type. 

The search committee has been finalized (the official committee website is here), with 16 members from the faculty, administration, and Board of Trustees, and input from anyone is welcome, as the search to replace President Robert A. Brown gets underway. Brown announced on September 7 that he will step down as BU’s 10th president in July 2023 after leading the University since 2005. Input to the search can be done through a survey form and through email. 

Photo of Antoinette “Tonie” Leatherberry (ENG’85), a middle-aged Black woman with shoulder length, slightly curled dark hair. She smiles, wears read lipstick, and earrings in the shape of a flower. She wears a pinkish-orange dress and stands in front of a dark gray background.
BU trustee Antoinette (Tonie) Leatherberry (ENG’85), chair of BU’s presidential search committee. Photo by Tony Valdez Photography

“During the fall semester, the search committee will hold a series of meetings and receive applications and nominations, all of which will be confidentially held,” notes search committee chair and BU trustee Antoinette (Tonie) Leatherberry (ENG’85) in a letter sent to the BU community Thursday. “The committee will identify finalists in the early months of 2023 and recommend these finalists to the Board of Trustees in the spring.

“The committee invites everyone in the BU community to share their thoughts and perspectives and to submit the names and/or titles of people whom they believe should be considered candidates for our next president,” Leatherberry writes, adding that the committee will actively engage “with BU faculty, staff, students, alums, and respected leaders to ensure our efforts are effective.”   

The committee aims to find a president who will build on the foundation Brown has laid, Leatherberry writes, which means someone dedicated to the liberal arts, to interdisciplinary education and research, and to graduate education. Recognizing the importance of a lively, bustling residential urban campus experience is also a priority for the search committee. “We seek a president who understands the importance of innovation and has the vision to appreciate the global opportunities and challenges in higher education institutions,” she writes.

The search committee will hold a series of meetings throughout the fall semester, while collecting nominations and applications.

The search committee members fall into two categories: trustees and faculty and administration:

Trustee members:

  • Antoinette R. Leatherberry (ENG’85), Presidential Search Committee chair, former principal, Deloitte
  • Maureen A. Alphonse-Charles (CAS’85), managing director, Koya Leadership Partners
  • Nathaniel Dalton (LAW’91), founder, Daybreak Partners
  • Maurice R. Ferré (CGS’81, MED’92, SPH’92), chairman and CEO, Insightec
  • Joseph Loscalzo, Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and chairman, Department of Medicine and Physician-in-Chief, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
  • Jane P. Moncreiff, founder and managing partner, Fulham Advisors, LLC
  • Malek Sukkar (ENG’92), chief executive officer, Averda
  • Elizabeth C. Thors, managing director, Wellington Management Company LLP
  • Peter L. Wexler (Questrom’93), president, Forest Avenue Technology Group

Faculty and administration members:

  • Christopher Chen, William Fairfield Warren Distinguished Professor, College of Engineering professor of biomedical engineering, and director, Biological Design Center
  • Kevin P. Gallagher, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies professor of global development policy and BU Global Development Policy Center director
  • Jennifer Grodsky, vice president for federal relations
  • Kimberly A. S. Howard, Faculty Council chair, Wheelock College of Education & Human Development associate professor of counseling psychology and applied human development
  • Hee-Young Park, School of Medicine professor of dermatology, associate dean of faculty affairs, and chair of Medical Sciences and Education
  • Stan Sclaroff, dean of Arts & Sciences 
  • Harvey Young, dean of College of Fine Arts

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There are 14 comments on Have an Opinion about Finding BU’s Next President? Search Committee Wants to Hear from You

      2. I agree. There have been some STUNNING disasters as business and education attempt to be “the first”.

        Who is selected needs to be honest, trustworthy, and ready to commit to BU for the long term. Not until a shinier position comes up.

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    2. To start, the only concrete benefit of appointing a BIPOC president is that university constituents who identify as BIPOC will see themselves represented in the highest post at Boston University, and that may elicit some response of pride, hope, etc. I am not discounting that as important, but ultimately the president will need to be judged by their accomplishments and body of work.

      Brown is as white as they come in terms of pigmentation, but his work to diversify the student body on ethnic, national, racial and class fronts was unquestionable. A person’s identity doesn’t automatically tell you what they believe, how they’ll lead, what they’ll prioritize, etc. Look at Clarence Thomas…

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  2. I’d love if we didn’t pay the president a disgustingly bloated salary (as well as paring down other hugely overblown admin salaries, like the Provost’s), and instead use that money to pay grad workers more. Just a thought.

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  3. BU should focus on bringing in a President who continues with President Brown’s work of academic selectiveness and boosting BU’s prestige — a proposition that seems shallow but in reality will boost the value of education for current students, alum, and even faculty.

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  4. Yes!!! Bring us a President that has some guts, some courage, and is not a wimp like President Brown, and will bring back FOOTBALL!!! Do any of you know anything about COLLEGE FOOTBALL? Do any of you remember the glory days of football at BU? Football draws alumni together, gives our university a greater positive profile all over the USA, and makes BU alumni like me more enthusiastic about giving our beloved university more financial support. Our entire athletic program is a shadow of what it once was under the leadership of the late great John Simpson, whom many of us miss dearly. John Silber is long gone now. The Board of Trustees and Alumni do not have to be afraid of him any more. Bring back FOOTBALL at BU!! Period!! Let’s see if any of our Trustees have the courage to do something out of the box. Bring back football at BU. Let’s become a major league university again like we once were! Our neighbors up at the heights at the other end of Commonwealth Avenue make us look bad. Bring back football at BU!!!!!!!!!! Let’s go!!!!

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  5. Yes, yes indeed. I would like to comment with one word for a necessary credential for
    the new BU President. The word: AVAILABILITY.
    I will welcome a new president, who would be recognizable among the students.
    His/her leadership in the presence of the BU COMMUNITY would contribute to
    partnership and a caridng attitude.

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  6. Please get rid of the term “chairMAN”.

    A Native American would be a step forward. I’m sure there are qualified women to interview.

    Jane BUSON 63

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  7. No tyrants.

    No diversity resulting in reverse discrimination.

    We don’t need football as above, keep academic TEACHING at the forefront, not just research and certainly not sports. I loved the hockey but not at the expense of academic excellence as the budget and exec focus.

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  9. I believe that President Brown did a commendable job, as BU’s national and global rankings increased several times under his leadership. Not to mention the diversity of students, staff, and faculty who all either and respectively graduated, were promoted/tenured, as well as were hired by other distinguished colleges and university. Alongwith the strong achievements, BU maintained its reputation of having the highest employability success of its graduates. We should look for these same qualities/track record and more in the next President.

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