Deborah Ford named new IUS chancellor

Feb. 2—NEW ALBANY — Deborah Ford has been named the new chancellor of Indiana University Southeast.

Indiana University announced Thursday that Ford will be the new leader of the regional campus in New Albany. She will begin the position July 1, and she will succeed Kelly Ryan, who has been interim chancellor since July 2022.

Ford has been in her current position as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Parkside since 2009. She is an IU alumna from the Louisville area.

The new chancellor said she was "drawn to the vision, the mission and the values" of IUS, and she admires Indiana University President Pamela Whitten's "vision for student success."

"As I look for what is next in my career, I am certainly looking for a place to make a difference, and I'm just drawn to the opportunities around advancing student success and building community partnerships across the region," Ford said.

She said she looks forward to working with leaders at IU and the regional campus for a "smooth transition."

"I look forward to working with Interim Chancellor Ryan on this transition," Ford said. "She is doing a great job as the interim chancellor, and we will continue to partner through this transition time for the university. We'll support her and her leadership team there at the institution."

She plans to work closely with Susan Sciame-Giesecke, IU vice president for regional campuses and online education, to "advance the IU 2030 Strategic Plan focused on student success at IU Southeast" and to build "community partnerships across the region."

A news release said Ford led the University of Wisconsin-Parkside campus "in an integrated planning effort that aligned the university's strategic framework to its academic and student affairs plan and its focus on strategic enrollment management."

Before the University of Wisconsin, she was the vice president of student affairs at the University of West Florida, and she also was vice president for student affairs and dean of students at Spalding University in Louisville.

She completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Louisville. She received her master's degree in education from IU and a doctorate in education from UofL.

Sciame-Giesecke touted Ford's expertise, saying she is a "proven leader."

"You don't get to hire someone with that amount of experience and that kind of record often," she said.

She said she has accomplished "amazing things" in her current position at the University of Wisconsin, and "we're just excited that she wants to return to the area."

"Being a sitting chancellor for that long she's experienced the ups and downs of running a university, and she's been able to do that in a remarkable way," Sciame-Giesecke said. "Her campus has been extremely successful internally, and she really has quite the reputation as someone who is very connected to the community and kind of the go-to person in her communities."

Ryan also sought the permanent chancellor position. Sciame-Giesecke described her as an "excellent candidate" for the position and noted that Ryan will continue in her previous role at IUS as executive vice chancellor of academic affairs.

"Dr. Ryan has done a good job in her interim role of making those partnerships with the communities and the schools and economic development and mayors," she said, "Chancellor Ford will come in and continue that good work and extend that work and make sure that Indiana University Southeast is the go-to kind of campus in the region."

As the IUS chancellor, Ford said she will bring a "passion for student success and placing students at the center of our decision-making."

Her immediate priority is "reconnecting and re-engaging in the community" as she prepares to return to the area, and she looks forward to meeting with IUS faculty, staff, students and alumni, she said.

Decreasing enrollment is one of the challenges IUS has faced in recent years. During her transition into leadership, she wants to connect with superintendents of regional K-12 schools and higher education partners to learn about opportunities and seek solutions for the issue.

"It's starting the conversations, having a shared vision to really grow enrollment — to grow opportunity for the students of the region to earn higher education," Ford said.

Ford seeks to "amplify what we are most proud of as a university" and to "provide the educational pathways and opportunities for the students of the region."

"My hope is that we can grow the university and really sort of recover from what I would consider lingering impacts of the global pandemic," Ford said.