Colette Geary, the 12th president of the College of St. Scholastica, has announced she will step down by the end of 2019. The school, located in Duluth, Minnesota, enrolls almost 4,300 students, 71 percent of whom are women.
Dr. Geary first became president of the private Catholic college in 2016. She is the first laywoman to serve as St. Scholastica president and the first woman president since 1975. Prior to her appointment as president, she served as the senior vice president for strategic initiatives at the College of New Rochelle in New York.
“In recent discussions with Board Chair Chris Dolan, I have shared with him the unanticipated challenges that the relocation to beautiful Duluth has posed for my family,” Geary wrote in an email to the college community. “In looking to the future, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that it will be best for me and my family that my commitment to the College presidency concludes within one year from now, or by December of 2019.”
Dr. Geary holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Manhattan College, a master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame, and a Ph.D. in psychology from Stony Brook University in New York.