Interim President Dr. Andrea Young named next vice president for finance and administration at DePauw University

Dr. Andrea Young, interim president at Ripon College, has been named the next vice president for finance and administration as well as chief financial officer at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. She will remain in her role at Ripon through the current academic year and will assume her new role at DePauw July 15.

Ripon College’s Board of Trustees named Young interim president beginning in January 2022. As the first woman to lead the College in its 170-year history, she replaced Dr. Zach Messitte, Ripon’s 13th president, after he stepped down at the end of the fall semester.

“Andrea has been a vital member of the campus community for more than 11 years, and her contributions as a faculty member and administrator are many,” says Thomas Abendroth, chair of the Ripon College Board of Trustees. “We are grateful for all she has done to position our next president for success.”

Prior to her role as interim president, Young served as vice president for finance and director of strategic initiatives, overseeing the business, financial and information technology functions of the College. She was the primary administrative liaison to the Board of Trustees on matters related to finance, investment, construction contracts and approval, risk management and audit. She also has remained dedicated to academic affairs through her service as the interim dean of faculty in 2019 and a sustained commitment to her role as a member of the mathematics faculty.

The winner of several teaching awards, she has published multiple peer-reviewed articles, including several co-written with Ripon students and faculty. She is the principal investigator on a successful National Science Foundation grant to improve undergraduate STEM education.

Young also served as special assistant to the president and liaison to the Board of Trustees where she led a number of strategic initiatives that focused on the student experience, including promoting academic success.

Young received her doctorate in mathematics from the University of Texas-Austin and her bachelor’s degree in mathematics with a minor in Italian from Pennsylvania State University.

“When I joined the administration at Ripon in January 2018, I expected it to be a temporary assignment — one that I would do for a year and then return to the mathematics faculty,” Young says. “Since that time, however, I have been afforded the opportunity to move into several key leadership roles and to work with just about every area of campus in some capacity.

“Now I see that my path is in higher education administration. I am so grateful to Ripon College for giving me the space to grow personally and professionally and for the trust that the campus community has placed in me. The College is on a great path to continued success, and I’m excited to see what the next leader of Ripon College will achieve.”

Ripon College is conducting a national search to name the College’s 14th president. The search committee has been interviewing and narrowing the candidate field with the hope of announcing a new president prior to the start of summer.

Posted May 2, 2022 in Academics, Administration, Alumni, Faculty, Office of the President, Staff, Student.