The Search for Linfield University's Next President

Board of Trustees announces presidential search committee, hires national firm

Kirby Dyess and Marvin Henberg, co-chairs of the Linfield University presidential search committee, on Monday named 16 committee members who have agreed to help guide the university in its search for a permanent president.

In addition to seven members of the Linfield University Board of Trustees, the committee includes three faculty members, three members of Linfield’s professional staff, two students and one representative from Linfield athletics.

Faculty, staff and student members of the committee were selected after a nomination process and listening sessions held on both campuses and via Zoom.

In a memo shared with the board, Dyess and Henberg said they adjusted their initial plans based on feedback from the Linfield community.

“We were impressed with the close cooperation between student leadership in McMinnville and Portland, so endorsed the joint suggestion from the McMinnville and Portland Campus student leadership to have a student representative from each campus,” they wrote.

They also decided to add a representative from athletics. “Our listening sessions identified nearly unanimous agreement that athletics is a pillar program at Linfield,” they wrote.

Dyess and Henberg also announced Monday they have hired Loren Anderson and Shannon McCambridge of AGB Search as senior search consultants. Anderson served as president of Pacific Lutheran University and as board chair of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). He was also a close friend and colleague of former Linfield President Vivian A. Bull. McCambridge is a Seattle employment attorney who specializes in non-discriminatory hiring practices as well as assisting the new president during the transition.

Dyess and Henberg thanked everyone who volunteered to be a part of the search committee, and stressed that they were forced to leave “many talented community members — trustees, faculty, and administrators — on the sidelines … whom we know would have served capably,” before pledging to keep the Linfield community appraised of the search process while also keeping applicant identities private until finalists are invited to campus interviews.

Search committee membership:

Trustees: 

Lucinda Fournier ’95, vice president of the W.M. Keck Foundation, chair of the board (ex officio member of the search committee, without a vote)

Kirby Dyess ’68, former chair of the Oregon Board of Higher Education and founding member of the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission, search committee co-chair

Marvin Henberg, president emeritus of the College of Idaho, search committee co-chair

Michelle Giguere ’78, partner in Summit Strategies Government Affairs LLC in Washington, D.C., vice chair of the board

Dave Dillon ’89, president of Food Northwest in Salem, Ore., vice chair of the board

Tim Nickerson ’01, vice president of risk management for the SP Plus Corporation in Chicago, Ill.

Dr. Harold Tu ’71, professor and director of maxillofacial surgery, University of Minnesota Medical School, Omaha Nebraska Center  

Faculty:

Julie Fitzwater ’06, associate dean and associate professor of nursing

Christopher Dahlvig, associate professor of business with an accounting emphasis

Eric Schuck, professor of economics with interests in agricultural and natural resource economics, Captain in the U.S. Navy Reserve

Administration:

Debbie Harmon Ferry ’90, director of alumni and parent engagement

Nina Tall, director of Portland Campus Operations and member of Staff Council

Michael Wenz, vice president for business and administration/CFO, former professor of economics at Northeastern Illinois University

Students:

Diego Arredondo ’25, majoring in accounting, RA advisor, intramural sports director and vice president of finance for ASLU

Camille Joy Baptista ’25, junior majoring in nursing, active on the Portland Campus

Athletics:

Casey Bunn-Wilson, head women’s basketball coach, interim Senior Woman Administrator, advisor of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee

Last updated April 1