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Marietta Board selects experienced, respected college leader to serve as Interim President

Dr. Margaret Drugovich to join the College on July 1, 2023

by Tom Perry

Marietta, Ohio (06/02/2023) — Marietta College's Board of Trustees selected Dr. Margaret L. Drugovich - a veteran college leader with proven strengths in strategic planning and implementation, enrollment management, and fundraising - to serve as interim president effective July 1, 2023.

"We are very pleased to have Dr. Drugovich step into the interim president role," said Mary Korn '82, Chair of the Marietta College Board of Trustees. "She has demonstrated a passion for the liberal arts and a strong grasp for the importance of strategic governance. At the same time, she has also displayed an understanding of the demands that small colleges are facing with enrollment and financial trends. She has proven herself as someone who quickly identifies issues and rises to the challenge."

Drugovich retired from Hartwick College in Oneonta, New York, in 2022 after serving 14 years as its President. She said she is pleased to be returning to a campus and excited about the opportunities that await at Marietta.

"Marietta College's long-standing commitment to delivering a high-quality education that enables the personal growth of its students is truly impressive," Drugovich said. "The benefits can be readily seen in the success of the College's graduates and in the pride these alumni take in their association with the College. I very much look forward to working with the College's students, faculty and administration, the local community, alumni, and Board of Trustees as we set the stage for the next chapter in the College's history."

Korn said everyone she spoke with regarding Drugovich's tenure as Hartwick's 10th president agreed that she led the institution through a period of transformational change and positively positioned Hartwick for a bright future.

"The Board's goal was to find someone who could have a transformational impact on Marietta while setting the groundwork to ease the transition for the next permanent president when they start sometime in 2024," Korn said.

Drugovich's career in higher education spans more than four decades, including the past 14 years at Hartwick. She developed the Organizing Principle & Strategic Framework that guided decision making and measured college performance against its strategic goals throughout her tenure (2008-22). Dr. Drugovich addressed college affordability by launching a three-year degree program in 2009, a degree option available in most Hartwick majors. She also oversaw the completion of a record-setting $34.7 million comprehensive campaign that was focused on funding student scholarships.

Other major planning initiatives during her tenure include a community-led master facilities plan and implementation. In addition Dr. Drugovich oversaw a series of planning initiatives that helped to shape and strengthen Hartwick for its future, including Hartwick's signature FlightPath initiative, launched in 2020, that places student support as its top programmatic priority. She also worked to introduce and develop the Hartwick College Center for Craft Food & Beverage and soon to open Hartwick College Grain Innovation Center, both of which are designed to generate additional revenues while providing essential technical support and advice to the region's growing grain and brewing industries.

Prior to her time at Hartwick, Dr. Drugovich was the Vice President for Strategic Communications and University Enrollment (2006-08) and Vice President of Admission and Financial Aid (1998-2005) at Ohio Wesleyan University. During her nine years at Bryant University she served as the Executive Assistant to the President and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid, among other roles. She began her career in higher education as a healthcare policy researcher at the Brown University Center for Gerontology and Health Care Research.

Drugovich holds a doctoral degree from Case Western Reserve University, a master's degree from Brown University and a bachelor's degree from Albertus Magnus College.

"Throughout my career, I have been inspired by the colleagues with whom I have worked, the students we have served, and the ever-present challenge of leveraging resources to their best and most effective use," Drugovich said. "Education changes lives for the better and provides the foundation for our collective future. We are so fortunate to be able to engage in such valuable and meaningful work at Marietta College."

Drugovich grew up in Geneva, Ohio, and was the first in her family to attend college. She and her wife, Elizabeth Steele, have two children.

Korn said the Board will now turn its attention to the national search for the College's 20th President and will announce a Presidential Search Committee soon.

Located in Marietta, Ohio, at the confluence of the Muskingum and Ohio rivers, Marietta College is a four-year liberal arts college. Tracing its roots to the Muskingum Academy back in 1797, the College was officially chartered in 1835. Today Marietta College serves a body of 1,200 full-time students. The College offers more than 50 majors and is consistently ranked as one of the top regional comprehensive colleges by U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review. Marietta was selected seventh in the nation according to the Brookings Institution's rankings of colleges by their highest value added, regardless of major.

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