The Board of Trustees of the Graduate Theological Union has announced the formation of a Presidential Search Committee to conduct an international search to replace the outgoing Riess Potterveld, who has announced his retirement, effective at the end of the current academic year.
Trustee William D. Glenn, an alumnus of both the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University and the Pacific School of Religion, has been asked by long-time trustee and current Board Chair Susan Cook Hoganson to lead the search. Glenn has a private practice in clinical psychology and represents PSR on the GTU board.
Glenn will chair a robust and widely diverse committee that will oversee the presidential search and make recommendations to the Board of Trustees, which will select the next president of the GTU to begin prior to the fall term, 2018-19.
In addition to Glenn and Hoganson, other members of the search committee include:
Yohana Junker, a GTU doctoral student and international scholar from Brazil;
The Rev. Uriah Kim, PhD, an alumnus and the dean and vice president for academic affairs of the GTU;
The Rev. James McDonald, PhD, a trustee and president of the San Francisco Theological Seminary;
Scott Mitchell, PhD, an alumnus, a former trustee, and dean of the Institute of Buddhist Studies;
Cynthia Moe-Loebeda, PhD, a core doctoral faculty member from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and The Church Divinity School of the Pacific;
The Rev. Kevin O’Brien, SJ, JD, dean of the Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University;
Rabbi Stephen Pearce, PhD, a former trustee and former faculty member, and rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanu-El in San Francisco;
Mary Jo Potter, a health care consultant and former trustee;
The Rev. Kirsi Stjerna, PhD, a core doctoral faculty member from the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and an international scholar from Finland;
The Rev. Kristin Stoneking, a doctoral student and former trustee, and senior pastor of Epworth United Methodist Church in Berkeley;
The Rev. Robert Wilkins, a trustee and former board representative for American Baptist Seminary of the West, and former president and CEO of the YMCA of the East Bay.
The search committee began its work in the summer, and is moving with vigor to revise the job description and identify strong candidates that will be presented to the Board of Trustees. The committee has also established a page on the GTU website at www.gtu.edu/news/gtu-presidential-search where the GTU community can track the progress of the search for a new president.