Sylvia Torti has been named the twentieth president of Westminster University in Salt Lake City, Utah. She will begin her tenure in July.
According to the U.S. Department of Education’s most recent data, Westminster University enrolls more than 800 undergraduate students, 58 percent of whom are women. The university also has a graduate population of roughly 300 students.
Dr. Torti has been serving as president of the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Before assuming that position in July 2024, she was dean of the Honors College and a presidential honors professor at the University of Utah, where she taught for 15 years. Earlier in her tenure, she was director of the university’s Bonderman Field Station. As a scholar, Dr. Torti has conducted extensive research in the areas of tropical ecology, environmental humanities, and higher education pedagogy.
“It’s an incredible honor to be selected as Westminster University’s twentieth president. I’ve long admired Westminster’s unique role in the ecosystem of higher education in Utah, rooted in the liberal arts and dedicated to building meaningful lives through learning,” said Dr. Torti. “Higher education is more than the first step toward a job — it’s about developing personal meaning for the kind of life one will lead and building capacities to use one’s talents for the common good.”
Dr. Torti is a graduate of Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where she majored in biology. She holds a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Utah.