The first meeting of LSU’s presidential search committee, which will select the university’s next president after former President William Tate IV departed earlier in the summer, will be Aug. 19.
The meeting will be held in the LSU Foundation Board Room at 9 a.m. It’ll kick off the process to select a new leader of Louisiana’s leading institution.
“This marks a defining moment in the life of our institution—one that calls for visionary leadership, inclusive collaboration, and an unwavering commitment to excellence,” LSU said in an announcement to faculty and staff Monday.
The 20-person committee is made up of community leaders, LSU stakeholders, administrators, two professors and one student.
The committee has also added a new member since the initial announcement of the committee on June 20. Olivia Phelps, an administration instructor at the College of Agriculture and a former Staff Senate president, is now the first LSU staff member on the committee.
In 2019-2020, when the university sought to replace President F. King Alexander, the search committee contracted a professional search firm to narrow down candidates. The committee’s meetings were public then, and its interviews of finalists for the position were also public.
In the meantime, the interim president is Matt Lee, formerly the vice president of agriculture and dean of the College of Agriculture.
The university has several other high-level vacancies at chief administrative officer and provost. Lee told the Reveille that those positions will be filled once a new president is named.
Here is the full committee:
- Scott Ballard, Chairman – LSU Board of Supervisors
- Lee Mallett, Vice Chair – LSU Board of Supervisors
- Valencia Sarpy Jones, Past Chair – LSU Board of Supervisors
- Rémy Voisin Starns, Past Chair – LSU Board of Supervisors
- James Williams, Past Chair – LSU Board of Supervisors
- John Carmouche, Supervisor – LSU Board of Supervisors
- Blaise Zuschlag, Supervisor – LSU Board of Supervisors
- Ben Bordelon, President & CEO – Bollinger Shipyards
- Clarence Cazalot, Immediate Past Chair MD Anderson, Former Chair/President/CEO Marathon Oil, Past Chair – LSU Foundation Board of Directors
- Paul Coreil, Chancellor – LSU Alexandria
- Greg Feirn, CEO – LCMC Health
- Olivia Phelps, LSU A&M Staff Senate Past President
- EJ Kuiper, President & CEO – Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System
- Pete November, CEO – Ochsner Health
- Roger Odgen, Business Leader, Philanthropist, LSU Foundation Board of Directors
- Emily Otken, Medical Student – LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport, Former Student Member – LSU Board of Supervisors
- Kenneth Schafer, Boyd Professor and Ball Family Distinguished Professor
- Ryan Theriot, Executive Vice President/COO of Parish Construction, Former LSU & MLB Baseball Player
- Daniel Tirone, LSU A&M Faculty Senate President, Associate Professor – LSU A&M College of Humanities & Social Sciences
- Bill Windham, Shreveport-Bossier Business and Industry Leader
