ST. MARY’S CITY, Md. ― St. Mary’s College of Maryland has named a dean and scientist from Lewis and Clark College as the school’s next president.
The St. Mary’s College board announced Wednesday that Tuajuanda Jordan was unanimously approved as the school’s president after a four-month search. She will take office July 1.
Previous president Joseph Urgo asked the board of trustees not to renew his contract last year.
Jordan is dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of chemistry at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore. Previously, she was director of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science Education Alliance in Chevy Chase, Md., and had been a tenured faculty member in the department of chemistry at Xavier University of Louisiana.
The 53-year-old Jordan is a Maryland native from Forestville.
“St. Mary’s College is an institution where individuals have a strong sense of their history, an understanding of their mission and an eye toward the future,” said Jordan, who has a B.S. in chemistry from Fisk University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Purdue University. “It is an institution where committed leadership, creativity, innovation, collaboration and integrity are expected of and appreciated by everyone in the community. St. Mary’s is at a unique point, filled with achievement and vast opportunities for continued growth, and I am honored to have been chosen to lead this distinguished institution.”
St. Mary’s College was designated Maryland’s state honors college in 1992. It enrolls more than 1,800 students.