Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington, has announced four finalists to take over for retiring president Thomas Purce, who has led the college for nearly 15 years. The four candidates will all visit campus in the coming weeks for interviews and public forums. Two of the four finalists for president are women.
Rhona Free is provost and vice president for academic affairs at Eastern Connecticut State University in Willimantic. She also served on the economics faculty and was the director of the Center for Educational Excellence. Dr. Free is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Notre Dame.
Margaret E. Madden is provost and vice president for academic affairs at the Potsdam campus of the State University of New York System. Previously, she was dean at Long Island University, associate dean of faculty at Lawrence University in Wisconsin, and professor of psychology at Franklin Pierce College in New Hampshire. Dr. Madden is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she majored in psychology. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.