President


Dominican University

President

The Presidential Search Committee of Dominican University (River Forest, IL), one of the nation’s most distinct Dominican Catholic institutions, invites applications, expressions of interest and nominations of candidates in its search for the University’s next president. The search was launched in response to President Donna Carroll’s decision to retire in June 2021, following her celebrated and extraordinary 27-year tenure. In her successor, Dominican seeks a caring, community-oriented leader with great vision, an unshakeable commitment to social justice and passion to ensure that Dominican University continues to realize its mission of preparing students to pursue truth, to give compassionate service and to participate in the creation of a more just and humane world.

Dominican University is a diverse, relationship-centered community rooted in a vibrant liberal arts and sciences education, offering rigorous, integrative, and innovative undergraduate, graduate and professional programs. At the heart of the University is its Catholic, Dominican tradition, grounded in the compatibility of faith and reason, which affirms the dignity of the human person and concern for the common good. The University's curricula, research and campus life demonstrate a commitment to ethics, community service, social justice and global citizenship. Dominican University educates one student at a time in the company of others, engaging a multiplicity of cultural, religious and secular worldviews, transforming students, faculty and staff into agents of positive change.

Small by design, Dominican is rich in opportunity. The University has an enrollment of about 3,200 students (2,166 undergraduate students and 1,023 graduate students) and 432 full and part-time faculty members. The average class size is 15, the student-faculty ratio is 10 to 1. The University motto of Caritas Veritas, meaning Love and Truth, is a living reality on a campus where collegiality, collaboration and respect define relationships among faculty, students and staff members. 

Dominican University is organized into four colleges: Rosary College of Arts and Sciences, the Brennan School of Business, the Borra College of Health Sciences and the College of Applied Social Sciences. Dominican offers more than 50 undergraduate majors, 18 master’s programs and one doctoral degree. Undergraduate students also have the option to pursue accelerated bachelor’s-to-master’s programs allowing them to earn an advanced degree with one additional year of study. Around 15 percent of Dominican’s graduate students also earned their bachelor’s at Dominican. 

Dominican has been recognized as a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) by the Department of Education since 2011. Dominican’s student body is diverse. Nearly 50 percent of students are Hispanic, 7 percent are African American, 3 percent are Asian, and 32 percent are white. A significant portion of the student population has high financial need. Nearly 50 percent are Pell eligible. Currently, 37 percent are the first in their family to attend college. About 80 percent are commuters. By their senior year, 75 percent of Dominican students report working off campus and about half say they are balancing academic demands with providing care for dependent family members. Those numbers are significantly higher than those at Dominican’s peer institutions, reflecting Dominican’s success in empowering students to persist and graduate with purpose. Dominican’s first-year retention rate is 83 percent, and the six-year graduate rate is 63 percent.

Dominican University has an operating budget of approximately $98 million and an endowment of $39 million. In June 2019, Dominican University completed its most recent and largest comprehensive capital campaign, Powerful Promise, which raised more than $76 million.   

Located on a 37-acre wooded campus in suburban River Forest, Illinois, and just 10 miles west of downtown Chicago, Dominican University provides students and alumnae/i an accessible and welcoming location and superb access to a wealth of career, intellectual and cultural opportunities.

The next president of Dominican University will have the opportunity to shape a vision for the future of Dominican that builds on its deep commitment to academic excellence and its uncompromising commitment to social justice rooted it its Dominican and Catholic foundations. The next president will continue to build a “university of the future” through its service to students and community, its diverse academic programming, it focus on student success, and its attention and accountability to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Further information about the position, the leadership agenda, desired attributes, and the application process are available in the search profile here. 

The Dominican University Presidential Search Committee will begin to evaluate applications immediately. Candidates should submit materials no later than February 3, 2021 to ensure fullest consideration. The new president is expected to begin work on July 1, 2021.

Applications should include a letter of candidacy that responds to the agenda for leadership and the desired attributes for a new president and a complete résumé or vita. All application materials will be considered in full confidence.

For best consideration, please send all nominations, confidential inquiries, and applications to: 

Julie E. Tea, Partner   

Jim Sirianni, Partner

Julie Williams-Krishnan, Senior Associate

DominicanPresident@storbecksearch.com

For more information, please visit Dominican’s home page at https://www.dom.edu/.

Dominican University is an equal opportunity employer. The University is dedicated to the goal of building a diverse faculty and staff committed to teaching and working in a multicultural environment. We look forward to a diverse pool of applicants who bring varied experiences, perspectives and backgrounds. Upon request, reasonable accommodations in the application process will be provided to individuals with disabilities.