Fairmont State University in West Virginia is located about 90 miles south of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It enrolls about 3,800 undergraduates and more than 200 graduate students. Women make up 55 percent of the student body.
The university has announced a field of five candidates who will be considered for the presidency of the educational institution. All five candidates recently visited the campus for a series of interviews and meeting with students, faculty, staff and other members of the university community. The board of trustees is expected to name the next president on October 19. One of the five finalists is a woman.
Mirta M. Martin is the former president of Fort Hays State University in Kansas. From 2009 to 2014, she was a professor of management and dean of the Reginald F. Lewis School of Business at Virginia State University. Before joining the faculty at Virginia State, Professor Martin was special assistant to the chancellor of the Virginia Community College System. Earlier, she was executive vice president at John Tyler Community College in Chester, Virginia, and associate dean of the business school at the University of Richmond. She taught at Averett University in Danville, Virginia, from 1992 to 2001. Before entering the academic world, Dr. Martin was a banking executive.,
Dr. Martin is graduate of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. She holds an MBA from the University of Richmond and a Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.