Barry Glassner named Lewis & Clark's 24th president
Lewis & Clark College
August 4, 2010
The Lewis & Clark Board of Trustees has named Dr. Barry Glassner, a noted cultural commentator and the executive vice provost at the University of Southern California, as its 24th president. Chosen by a unanimous vote of the trustees, Glassner will begin his duties in late October.
Glassner has built a successful career as a professor and administrator at several institutions of higher education. A keen observer of American culture, Glassner is the author or coauthor of nine books, including The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things (1999), a national bestseller that was named a “Best Book of the Year” by the Los Angeles Times. An updated edition was released in 2010.
Prior to becoming USC’s executive vice provost, Glassner served as director of the USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life, and previous to that he chaired the Department of Sociology. Earlier in his career, Glassner led academic departments at Syracuse University and the University of Connecticut. He received a B.A. from Northwestern University and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis.
Ron Ragen, chair of the Lewis & Clark Board of Trustees, said Glassner embodies the traits and values of the liberal arts—engagement with the social issues and challenges of our time, critical thinking, and academic rigor. Ragen hailed Glassner’s unique blend of effective executive leadership, demonstrated ability to expand an academic institution’s resources, and skill as a community- and consensus-builder.
“Barry built a reputation as a persuasive ambassador for higher education during his time in the Los Angeles community,” Ragen said. “We are eager to see him make his mark in Portland, while he extends Lewis & Clark’s national and global reach.”
“I’m enormously excited and honored to have this opportunity,” Glassner said. “Lewis & Clark has a configuration that is unique in higher education: a law school with programs that are top ranked nationally; a graduate school that produces many of the region’s top education leaders; and an undergraduate college with amazing students—seven Fulbright Scholars this year alone—and an unparalleled level of international engagement.
“Add to that an accomplished faculty that has a reputation for being uncommonly engaged with their students, and a devoted board and 36,000 proud alumni—not to mention the most beautiful campus I’ve ever seen—and it is an awfully exciting place.”
