Mary Hendrix Named President of Shepherd University in West Virginia

The board of governors of Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, has named Mary J.C. Hendrix as the educational institution’s 16th president. The university, in the northeast part of the state, enrolls about 3,800 undergraduate students and close to 300 graduate students. Women make up 59 percent of the undergraduate student body.

Dr. Hendrix is a 1974 graduate of Shepherd University with a bachelor’s degree in pre-med/biology. When she takes office, she will be the first graduate of the university to be named president in the institution’s 144-year history.

Dr. Hendrix has been serving as president and chief scientific officer of Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago’s Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. Previously, she held faculty and/or staff posts at the University of Arizona, the University of California, San Francisco, Saint Louis University, and the University of Iowa.

In accepting the appointment, Dr. Hendrix said “I am grateful to Shepherd for the strong, multidisciplinary education provided to me with valuable contributions from the faculty, staff, and members of the community, and now I am very appreciative for the opportunity to work with all stakeholders in advancing the institution to the next level of preeminence.”

Dr. Hendrix earned a Ph.D. at George Washington University and did postdoctoral research at Harvard Medical School.