Terri Goss Kinzy Named the Twentieth President of Illinois State University

The board of trustees of Illinois State University has appointed Terri Goss Kinzy as the university’s twentieth president. Her appointment is effective July 1, 2021.

Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, enrolls more than 18,000 undergraduate students and about 2,600 graduate students, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 55 percent of the undergraduate student body.

“I am honored to be appointed as the next president of Illinois State University. I have enjoyed my interactions with the board of trustees, the president’s team, the search and governance committees, and learned so much about the mission, vision, and values of the university,” said Dr. Kinzy. “I look forward to interacting with our Illinois State and greater communities, learning about our hopes and dreams for the University, and working together to elevate the institution. These are both exciting and challenging times in higher education and Illinois State is clearly poised to thrive.”

Dr. Kinzy has been serving as a professor of biology and vice president for research and innovation at Western Michigan University. Earlier, she served as vice president of research and professor in the department of biochemistry and molecular biology at Rutgers University in New Jersey; and as senior associate dean for the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and Research at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

Dr. Kinzy is a graduate of the University of Akron in Ohio, where she majored in chemistry. She holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and did postdoctoral research at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.