Search Committee
The Board of Trustees of Manhattanville College has formed a committee to choose the school’s next president.
A search of this importance requires input from various constituencies serving side-by-side: Trustees, Faculty, Alumni, Staff and Students.
Search Committee Members
Mark Davis - (Trustee) Co-Chair
Sally J. Rogers ('72, Trustee) - Co-Chair
James Bryan Ph.D. - Professor of Economics and Finance
Barbara Knowles Debs Ph.D. - Former President of Manhattanville College (1975 – 1985) and Professor of Art History
Jose Flores (’93) - Vice President of Enrollment Management
Frank Furbacher ('09) - Student Government President
Gillian Greenhill Hannum Ph.D. - Professor and Chair of Art History
Nancy Roberts King ('66,Trustee)
Ernst (Nick) Ohnell (Trustee)
Edward Schwartz Ph.D. - Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science
Sylvia Quarles Simmons Ph.D. (’57, Trustee)
Anthony L. Watson (Trustee)
Shelley B. Wepner Ed.D. - Professor and Dean of the School of Education
Executive Staff
Donald Dean - Director of Human Resources
Professional Search Consultants
Russell Reynolds Associates
Nancy Mistretta
Paul H.L. Chou
Jeannie Kwok
Mark Davis is Co-President of Lank Acquisition Corp, a private equity firm. His career has included over 20 years in corporate finance and investment banking; he previously held the position of Vice Chairman at JPMorgan. A Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees of Manhattanville and Chair of the Finance Committee, he has served on the board for five years.
back to top
Sally J. Rogers is Senior Vice President for Communications and Development at United Hospital Fund, the nation’s oldest federated charity. A graduate of Manhattanville, she also earned an MAT in English from Brown University. She is currently a Manhattanville Trustee and served as co-president of the Manhattanville Alumni Association from 1998 to 2000.
back to top
James Bryan is a tenured Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics, Finance and Management at Manhattanville College. He received an A.B. degree from the University of Notre Dame and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Virginia. Beginning in 1984, his service to the College has included six years as Provost and over three years in other areas of academic administration.
back to top
Barbara Knowles Debs, joined the Art History department in 1968, and became President of Manhattanville College in 1975. She held that position until 1985. Subsequently, she was President of the New-York Historical Society and currently serves as a trustee on numerous boards, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation and the New-York Historical Society.
back to top
Jose Flores is Vice President of Enrollment at Manhattanville College. He received his B.A. and his M.L.S. at Manhattanville. He has traveled the United States and the world to help recruit qualified students and has helped to ensure the resounding success of Manhattanville’s diversity initiative.
back to top
Frank Furbacher is a full-time undergraduate student majoring in Finance. He is President of the Manhattanville College Student Government, plays on Manhattanville’s baseball team and maintains a GPA of 3.36.
back to top
Gillian Greenhill Hannum is a tenured Professor of Art History and Chair of the Department of Art History. She has taught at Manhattanville since 1987 and has served on a number of campus committees over the years. Specializing in the history of photography, she is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. She holds a B.A. from Principia College and an M.A. and Ph.D. from The Pennsylvania State University.
back to top
Nancy Roberts King is a life-long philanthropist and President of the Willis and Nancy King Foundation. She received a B.A. in English from Manhattanville. In addition to volunteering with many community organizations, including Covenant House of New Jersey, she was founding Director of the Hilltop Community Bank in Summit, N.J. She currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees at Manhattanville.
back to top
Ernst (Nick) Ohnell is the founder of Ohnell Capital, LLC, which invests in public companies, private equity, real estate partnerships and mezzanine securities. A co-funder of The Manhattan Institute Award for Social Entrepreneurship, he currently serves on the boards of Storm King Art Center, Saint Ann School and the Ohnell Family Foundation. He has served as a Trustee of Manhattanville College since 2006.
back to top
Ed Schwartz, a tenured Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, has been at Manhattanville for 23 years. After receiving an A.B. from NYU and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Yeshiva University, he left a tenured position to join the faculty at Manhattanville. Research interests and areas of publication include mathematical logic, artificial intelligence and expert systems.
back to top
Sylvia Simmons is a Lecturer in Education at Boston University and a consultant with Executive Service Corps of New England, working with non-profit organizations in the areas of Board of Trustees development and strategic planning. She has served as Associate Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Harvard and Radcliffe colleges, Director of Financial Aid and Associate Dean for Women's Education at Radcliffe College and as the Registrar for the School of Management, Boston College. She has served as a Trustee of Manhattanville College since 1986.
back to top
Anthony L. Watson is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Emblem Health, Inc, the parent company of HIP Health Plan (HIP) and Group Health, Inc. (GHI). Mr. Watson also serves as Chairman and CEO of HIP. He is a leading national figure in health care. He sits on a number of boards of directors and was named by President Bill Clinton to serve as a member of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare.
back to top
Shelley B. Wepner, a tenured Professor of Education and Dean of the School of Education, has been employed at Manhattanville since 2004. Her current areas of interest and research include connections between K-12 education with higher education, along with teacher education and literacy development. She received her Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
back to top
Donald Dean, Director of Human Resources, holds an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, Teachers College. He has over 25 years of human resources experience in higher education, most recently at Polytechnic University and Teachers College.
back to top
Paul H.L. Chou is a member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Not-for-Profit Sector, focusing on searches in the Education, and the Culture, Conservation and Foundations Practices. Based in Washington, D.C., he specializes in assignments for presidents, vice-presidents/provosts, deans and other senior leaders for colleges and universities, and for executive-level administrators for a variety of cultural institutions.
back to top
Jeannie Kwok is a research associate in Russell Reynolds' Not-For-Profit sector. She focuses on recruiting chief executives for higher education, cultural institution and foundation searches. Prior to joining the firm, Ms. Kwok conducted research at the Committee of 100, a non-profit organization that fosters US-China relations. She has worked with visual arts and youth development programs in Los Angeles and New York.
back to top
Nancy Mistretta is a member of Russell Reynolds Associates’ Not-For-Profit Sector. She is responsible for managing executive officer searches for many large philanthropies, with a special focus on educational searches for presidents, deans, and financial officers. Based in New York, she is also active in the CEO/Board Services Practice and is Deputy Area Manager for the New York office.
back to top