Randolph College’s Dr. Elizabeth Perry-Sizemore to serve as vice president and dean of Maryville College, effective July 1
Feb. 5, 2024
After an extensive national search process, Maryville College has named Dr. Elizabeth Perry-Sizemore as the new vice president and dean of the College, effective July 1.
Perry-Sizemore will step down from her role as Presidential Fellow and professor of economics at Randolph College in Lynchburg, Virginia, where she serves as the Catherine Ehrman Thoresen and William Thoresen Chair in Economics. A 1997 graduate of that institution when it was Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, she earned her master’s and Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech and has served as a member of the Randolph faculty since 2000. Her previous roles at Randolph include interim provost and vice president for Academic Affairs; Social and Behavioral Sciences Division head; chairperson of Economics and Business; assistant dean of the college; and director of the Student/Faculty Summer Research Program.
“Dr. Perry-Sizemore impressed the Vice President and Dean of the College Search Advisory Committee and many interviewers as a highly experienced, thoughtful, collaborative and strategic academic leader, firmly rooted in the liberal arts tradition,” MC President Dr. Bryan F. Coker said in a campus-wide memo to the College’s students, faculty and staff. “As Randolph’s interim provost and vice president, she led numerous major projects, including an academic innovation initiative, which led to new academic programs, as well as enhanced student enrollment and retention.
“I know you will join me in congratulating and welcoming Dr. Perry-Sizemore. I am confident she is the right leader at the right time, and I look forward to partnering with her in the coming years, as we all strive to advance and strengthen the College and continue educating our students to go out into the world, endeavoring ‘to do good on the largest possible scale.’”
Perry-Sizemore will succeed Dr. Dan Klingensmith, a professor of history and former chair of the MC Division of Humanities who assumed the role in 2019 and announced his return to the classroom last fall. A member of the MC faculty since 1998, Klingensmith helped the College navigate the tumultuous academic period during the COVID-19 pandemic in which students and faculty members adjusted to virtual instruction and, later, safe reintegration back to the classroom.
Klingensmith’s decision to step down kicked off a collaboration with Storbeck Search, an experienced consulting firm with 25 years in higher education, including Managing Director Julie Tea and Senior Associate Kate Phillips. The firm worked with an internal Search Advisory Committee made up of faculty, staff and students, including: Dr. Dan Ross, faculty chair and associate professor of mathematics, who led the committee alongside Coker; Adrienne Schwarte, professor of design; Dr. Doug Sofer, associate professor of history; Stephanie Proctor, assistant professor of American Sign Language; Dr. Ja’Wanda Grant, vice president and dean of students; Brittney Washington, Staff Council representative and senior associate director of Athletics; Kelton Bloxham ’24, Student Government Association president; Montina Jones, ’26, student-at-large representative; and Dr. Jim Kulich, representative of the Maryville College Board of Directors.
“I am profoundly grateful for the work of the Search Advisory Committee and the many hours committee members devoted to this search process,” Coker said. “You can trust that they each represented their respective stakeholders quite well, always operating in honest and candid ways, and with a great sense of duty and responsibility.
“Storbeck Search assisted us in recruiting a remarkable pool of highly qualified candidates. The outstanding response to this position vacancy should be a source of pride for all of us at the College. Our rich history, institutional health, and current momentum are being noticed, as we grow and advance the College amidst such challenging times for schools like us.”
Committee members also acted as unofficial ambassadors for the College, established in 1819 and consistently ranked as one of the finest small, private, liberal arts schools in the nation. Their advocacy for the College, Perry-Sizemore said, factored heavily into her decision to accept the position.
“During both my semi-finalist and finalist interviews, I met many faculty, staff, students, board members and friends of Maryville,” she said. “The nature of their thoughtful questions and perspectives convinced me that Maryville College is a strong and creative liberal arts community with solid commitments to enriching the lives of students and engaging deeply with the region. Maryville’s attention to scholarship, respect, and integrity shows in the meaningful ways its students and graduates engage with the world.
“I’m thrilled to be joining Maryville College’s warm and welcoming community. Members of Maryville learn, work, and serve with impressive intentionality. Maryville’s future excites me, and I am honored that I will serve as vice president and dean of the College.”
Perry-Sizemore has notched numerous accomplishments, including assisting in the design of and participation in the selection process for the Randolph Innovative Student Experience (RISE) program, which awards grants to Randolph students to pursue scholarly and creative endeavors; joining faculty and administrators from other institutions to develop proposals for enhancing undergraduate research on their own campuses and speaking on curricular scaffolding for undergraduate research experiences; serving as student research module coordinator for the National Science Foundation-funded Starting Point: Teaching and Learning Economics, a pedagogic portal project developed by economists in collaboration with the Science Education Resource Center of Carleton College; serving as the president of the Virginia Association of Economists; advising independent undergraduate research projects in various classrooms and engaging in student/faculty community-based research collaborations with students through paid summer research positions, independent studies, experiential learning opportunities, and her service learning public economics course; and more. She and her husband, Vic, will relocate to East Tennessee before her effective July 1 start at MC.
“I’m so pleased to learn that you have selected Liz Perry-Sizemore for this position at Maryville College,” said Sue Ott Rowlands, president of Randolph College. “At Randolph, Liz excelled as a division head, and she served the College exceptionally well as our Interim Provost. She has done an outstanding job this year as our inaugural Presidential Fellow, and she is well-prepared for her new role at Maryville. Liz is a conscientious leader, she pays close attention to details, and she cares deeply about student success. She brings a wealth of experience and skill, and I am certain she will prove to be an outstanding leader as she moves into this new role.”