Sandra J. Doran has been unanimously elected by the board of trustees to serve as the sixth president of Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. She will take office on June 30, 2020, succeeding Carol Leary, who retires after serving as president of the university for the past quarter-century.
Bay Path University enrolls just under 2,000 women in undergraduate programs, according to the latest data supplied to the U.S. Department of Education. It also educates more than 1,500 graduate students.
“I am humbled by the trust the board has placed in me to continue the spirit of innovation here at Bay Path,” said Doran. “The visionary nature of President Leary is inspiring and unprecedented in higher education and I look forward to working with the Bay Path faculty and staff to build on her legacy. Serving our students, providing them with a superior learning experience, gives us all great joy. I look forward to engaging with all members of our community, students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees, and our business and philanthropic partners.”
Doran currently serves as president of Salem Academy and College in North Carolina, the oldest educational institution for girls and women in the United States. Before coming to Salem College in 2018, Doran served as national program director of the New England Board of Higher Education and as entrepreneur-in-residence at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. Earlier, she was chief of staff, vice president, and general counsel at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
President Doran is a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where she majored in political science. She holds a juris doctorate from the Syracuse University College of Law in New York.