Anna Maria names interim president as new leader
Mary Lou Retelle has been named president at Anna Maria College.
The Anna Maria College Board of Trustees has chosen Mary Lou Retelle — who has served as interim president since July 2014 — as its 11th president.
She is the first woman to serve as the school’s leader in more than 20 years, and is the first laywoman to lead the school since its founding in 1946.
The Paxton college made the announcement Thursday. Retelle, of Worcester, will officially become president June 1.
“Ms. Retelle, who has served as interim president since July 2014, has the board’s unanimous confidence as not only the best prepared candidate for the position, but the one who has lived it, and performed extremely well,” Paul A. DiPierro, chairman of the board of trustees, said in a statement. The yearlong search drew more than 70 applicants.
DePierro said that in her short time as interim president, Retelle made decisions that led to improved student satisfaction, including a nearly 50 percent increase in new student enrollment, improved financial aid disbursement, and enhanced relations with key community stakeholders. He also credited her with an improved Anna Maria website and other marketing and academic contributions.
Retelle brings to the presidency 25 years of experience as an executive administrator at academic institutions, the statement said. She joined Anna Maria executive as executive vice president in 2011. She became interim president after the resignation last year of Jack P. Calareso.
“I look forward to carrying forward the positive momentum we’ve attained and working with the Board of Trustees to advance the college in the years ahead,” Retelle said in the statement. “The campus community has worked diligently to make decisions that have had a direct, positive impact to the quality of the student experience and to the heritage of Anna Maria College.”
WBJ Web Partners
Most Recent
Most Recent
0 Comments