Natalie Harder Appointed the 17th President of Coker University in Hartsville, South Carolina

The board of trustees of Coker University in Hartsville, South Carolina, has named Natalie Harder as the institution’s 17th president. She will take office on June 1.

Coker University enrolls just over 1,100 undergraduate students and about 150 graduate students, according to the latest data furnished to the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 55 percent of the undergraduate student body.

“I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to lead this impressive institution and further its mission to educate the new student majority,” Dr. Harder said. “I hope to build on Coker’s many strengths, including its student success initiatives, academic opportunities, and career readiness. Coker’s faculty, staff, board of trustees, alumni, students, and the Hartsville community are great assets. I look forward to honoring Coker’s many traditions while moving the university to new levels of innovation and success.”

Since 2012, Dr. Harder has been serving as chancellor of South Louisiana Community College in Lafayette. Earlier, Dr. Harder served as vice president of institutional advancement at Patrick Henry Community College in Martinsville, Virginia, and as executive director of the Erie Community College Foundation in Buffalo, New York.

Dr. Harder holds a bachelor’s degree from the University at Buffalo of the State University of New York System, where she majored in economics. She earned a master’s degree in finance at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and a Ph.D. in community college leadership from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia.