New College President Chosen

The Defi­ance Col­lege Board of Trustees has named Dr. Richanne C. Mankey as the college’s 19th pres­i­dent. Dr. Mankey is the first woman pres­i­dent in the 165-year his­tory of the col­lege. She will begin her pres­i­dency on cam­pus Jan. 11. Mankey suc­ceeds Mark Gor­don, who stepped down to accept the pres­i­dency of William Mitchell Col­lege of Law in St. Paul, Minn. Edward Buhl is cur­rently serv­ing as interim pres­i­dent and will return to his posi­tion as chair of the Board of Trustees when Mankey assumes the pres­i­dency. Mankey is a noted expert on trans­for­ma­tional lead­er­ship and has a proven record as a fundraiser, accord­ing to col­lege offi­cials, who in mak­ing the announce­ment, said she under­stands and believes in the mis­sion of Defi­ance Col­lege as a pri­vate, lib­eral arts-based col­lege, and her dis­tin­guished pro­fes­sional career demon­strates a strong com­mit­ment in that area. She began her career at Ohio North­ern Uni­ver­sity, where she was the youngest named vice pres­i­dent. Mankey and her hus­band, Michael, will be relo­cat­ing to Defiance.