BREAKING NEWS: College of the Atlantic names new president
EDITOR’S NOTE: This press release was embargoed for publication April 10, but the Islander broke the story early on its website, followed by the Bangor Daily News.
BAR HARBOR, April 9, 2024 — The College of the Atlantic Board of Trustees is pleased to announce the unanimous selection of Dr. Sylvia Torti as the college's seventh president.
Torti, an accomplished writer, ecologist, and innovative academic leader with 15 years of experience in higher education, will succeed president Darron Collins, PhD ’92 upon his retirement at the end of the 2023-24 academic year. Torti will begin her tenure as president on July 1.
“Dr. Sylvia Torti is the perfect person to carry College of the Atlantic into our second half century. Her intellectual curiosity, natural leadership, incredible creativity, passion for the human experience, and ability to connect with others on a deep, personal level will allow her to inspire, energize, and uplift all members of the COA community,” said COA Board of Trustees Chair Beth Gardiner.
From 2012-2023, Torti served as dean of the Honors College at University of Utah, a liberal arts college nested within a large research institution, where she achieved ambitious goals through dedicated strategic planning, including tripling the diversity of the student body as well as increasing the number of out-of-state students. She also created a successful office to mentor for nationally competitive scholarships and initiated and implemented a vision for globally oriented, integrated curricula in ecology, health, and human rights. Torti, who is from a bicultural Latinx background and has lived and worked globally, is a collaborative leader with a passion for experiential, interdisciplinary learning, shared governance, and centering the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in today's higher education landscape.
“Dr. Torti fully understands the moment we are in, the important role that COA has in the world of higher education, and how vital it is to make sure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to how we evolve as a college at this time,” Gardiner said. “One of the things that we’re so inspired by is Dr. Torti’s proven track record in this area, along with her deep personal commitment. She has a firm grasp of the importance of attracting and retaining diverse students and faculty and expanding the types of classes offered so that we can better reflect the world around us.”
Torti holds a Ph.D. from the University of Utah School of Biological Sciences and a B.A. from Earlham College. She boasts a 30-year record of publication, including multiple scientific research papers, research and opinion pieces on methods of pedagogy, two novels, and multiple short stories and essays. Her latest novel, Cages, was published by Schaffner Press in 2017.
“I believe so deeply in COA’s mission and I am honored and thrilled to join this dynamic community,” Torti said. “COA is already a leader in higher education because of its successful and inspiring commitment to a dialogical, ecologically based education, an approach that I believe will become increasingly important in the years to come. COA is a bold place where people acknowledge cooperation and conflict and strive to understand how and why those behaviors manifest. I think the founders were so right to create a school where we can use what we know about these dimensions of human nature to find solutions to both small and big problems. I am so inspired by the founders’ vision and the way that the school has kept this fire alive!”
Previous to her 11-year tenure as honors college dean, Torti served as the director of University of Utah’s remote Bonderman Field Station, where she developed and implemented a creative vision for the nascent field station to serve natural sciences, arts, humanities, architecture, and engineering faculty and students, led strategic planning, and coordinated research, education, outreach, and job training programs.
“If we were able to somehow piece together the many traits and skill sets that a college president needs to have, and in particular the unique set of skills that a COA president needs to have, we would end up with Dr. Sylvia Torti. Ever since the founding of COA 50+ years ago, we've been proud of our inherently multidisciplinary approach, and Dr. Torti embodies this,” said Michael Boland ’94, a COA Trustee and member of the presidential search committee.
College of the Atlantic was in an excellent position to recruit a new leader because of the success of current president Darron Collins ’92, Gardiner said. During his 13 years at the college, Collins, COA’s first alumni president, led the completion of two capital campaigns totalling nearly $90M, the construction of a state-of-the-art academic building and new student residence, the acquisition of off-campus student housing, enrollment growth resulting in the college meeting its 350-student goal, an eight-year reign as Princeton Review’s #1 green college, creation of the COA Summer Institute, and the installation of a site-specific artwork by internationally renowned land artist Andy Goldsworthy.
“I feel enormously fortunate to follow President Darron Collins,” Torti said. “While I was on campus, it was clear to me that his consistent and passionate leadership has contributed to a highly engaged faculty, staff, and student body, and raised the school’s national profile. I look forward to building on his many successes.”
COA has been led by a highly capable succession of leaders since its incorporation in 1969, beginning with founding president Edward Kaelber and followed by Dr. Judith Swazey, Dr. Louis Rabineau, Dr. Steven Katona, David Hales, Andy Griffiths (one-year interim president), and Collins.
The search committee, chaired by COA Trustee Cynthia Baker, comprised trustees, faculty, students, and staff members, with alumni among both trustees and staff. Dr. Ruth Shoemaker Wood of Diversified Search Group held listening sessions with alumni, students, staff, faculty, and trustees, before presenting an initial pool of 81 candidates. During their extensive search, the committee considered and engaged with many highly qualified individuals from both within and outside of academia.
“The search committee was blown away by the breadth and quality of the applicants for the position. It quickly became clear that the college’s mission and model of education is resonating in a deep way with people who aspire to lead organizations, and we couldn’t have been more pleased with those from higher ed, nonprofits, and government who sought to become our next president,” Baker said. “As an exceptional leader and a systems thinker, Dr. Torti will excel at both the internal work of management and mission refinement and the external work of fundraising and public-facing leadership. I’m deeply grateful to all of the members of the committee who dedicated so much time and effort, and to the 150+ COA community members who provided feedback to our group for helping us reach this decision.”
Torti will be joined in Bar Harbor by her partner, Scott Woolsey, who considers Maine “almost home,” as his family has enjoyed a lakeside property near Bethel, Maine since his childhood. He has an extensive background in food systems and organic farming in New England and looks forward to being part of the COA and MDI community.