June 21, 2024
The Ursuline College Board of Trustees is pleased to announce David King, EdD as the College’s 18th president, effective July 1, 2024. He succeeds Sister Christine De Vinne, OSU, PhD, who announced last August that she would retire at the end of the 2023-24 academic year.
Currently serving as the Executive Director of Business Relations & Executive in Residence for Eastern University’s College of Business and Leadership, King joins Ursuline College with vast leadership experience in academia. He previously served for more than 10 years as the president of Malone University in North Canton, Ohio, stepping down in 2022.
During his presidency at Malone, the university launched several successful new programs such as cybersecurity, criminal and restorative justice, and urban studies. It also reconfigured some offerings to be fully online including the bachelor’s in social work, master’s in counseling, and MBA programs. Malone also completed a $25-million capital campaign and secured more than 100 partnerships with Northeast Ohio organizations, businesses, and non-profits.
Prior to joining Malone, King spent 20 years at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania, in leadership roles with increasing responsibility in human resources, fundraising, and eventually as provost. He is the former chair of the President’s Council of the Great Midwest Athletic Conference and the Board for the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Ohio. King has also served on the boards of the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges and the Christian College Consortium. He currently is a board member for the National Board of Bridge of Hope, a faith based nonprofit serving homeless women and children.
Hundreds of applications were reviewed with assistance from the search firm Hyatt-Fennell. Ursuline College Board Chair John M. “Jack” Newman states, “Dr. King stood out because of his many accomplishments, especially in his ability to help an organization as well as its faculty and staff adapt to the rapid changes in higher education.”
Teri Corletzi, search committee chair and board vice chair adds, “The members of the committee were impressed not only with Dr. King’s successes but also with his commitment to the student experience. For us, that’s the embodiment of the Ursuline College mission--educating students for service, leadership, and professional excellence.”
King, who will be the first layperson and male to preside over the historically women’s co-ed Catholic college, notes that Ursuline College’s mission and its core values played a significant role in his decision.
“The College’s core values of being student focused while promoting spirituality, respect, and collaboration are equally as important to me as its mission,” says King. “The mission describes what we do, while our core values represent how we engage with the world to accomplish that mission. Together, they represent the transformational impact of an Ursuline College education.”
He continues, “Winnie and I are delighted to be joining the campus community, a community defined by these consequential values. I am grateful to Ursuline College’s Board of Trustees for this opportunity and I am humbled to be entrusted to help guide those ideals as together we shape the College’s future.”
A graduate of Eastern Mennonite University with a bachelor’s in social work, King earned master’s degrees in human services administration and human resources for development from Villanova University and the EdD in higher education administration from Temple University. He is married to Winnie Lowrie King. The couple have two grown children—a son and a daughter—and five grandchildren, ages 13 to six.
Click here to learn more about Dr. King.
