Youngstown State University has announced that it has selected three finalists for the position of president of the university from a pool of 37 candidates. The candidates will all be visiting campus this week for interviews and public forums. One of the three candidates is a woman.
Mary Cullinan is president of Southern Oregon University in Ashland. She is also a professor of English at the university. Southern Oregon University enrolls about 5,800 undergraduate students and 500 graduate students. Enrollments are about half of those at Youngstown State.
Dr. Cullinan has been president of Southern Oregon University since 2006. Previously, she was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. Earlier in her career, she taught at California State University, Stanislaus and California State University, East Bay.
Professor Cullinan is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the co-editor of American Women Writers: Diverse Voices in Prose Since 1845 (St. Martin’s Press, 1992) and author of Business English for Industry and the Professions (Dryden Press, 1986).
Dr. Cullinan will be competing against Gary L. Miller, chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and James R. Tressel, executive vice president for student success at the University of Akron and the former head football coach at Ohio State University.
Update: On May 9, the board of trustees chose James Tressel as president.