LaGrange College’s newest president is only second woman to hold the job in 190 years
LaGrange College has a new president.
Susanna Baxter, president of the Georgia Independent College Association, was hired as the next president of LaGrange College by a unanimous vote of the private institution’s board of trustees Wednesday.
Baxter will succeed Dan McAlexander, who is retiring this summer after leading the college for 11 years.
“Our campus leadership could not be more excited to have Dr. Baxter become president of this fine institution,” board chairman Bobby Carmichael, who led the 13-member search committee, said in a news release. “She brings a wealth of expertise and leadership in higher education, as evidenced by her 20 years of work serving and advocating for private higher education in both Tennessee and Georgia. She is the right person to not only lead us through these challenging COVID-19 times, but also to cast a vision and action plan for the longer term.
Baxter was selected out of more than 100 applicants, according to the news release.
Entering its 190th year as Georgia’s oldest private institution of higher education, LaGrange College has had 26 presidents — and Baxter will be only the second woman with that title, following Daisy Davies (1915-1920) a century ago.
“It is an honor to be joining such a wonderful institution with such a dedicated team,” she said in the news release. “My family and I look forward to becoming part of a vibrant campus community — and the equally vibrant community of LaGrange — sometime this summer.
“I am grateful for President McAlexander’s impressive tenure, which gives us much to build upon. Working with the entire LaGrange family, I am confident we can propel the college strongly ahead.”
Baxter has worked in Atlanta as GICA president for the past 10 years. The GICA represents 24 private colleges in the state, including LaGrange. She also is a board member for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
Her other affiliations include being appointed by the governor to the REACH Foundation Board, serving as a lay representative on the Georgia United Methodist Commission on Higher Education and Collegiate Ministry, and as a member of the staff parish relations committee at Saint Mark United Methodist Church in Atlanta.
Baxter is a summa cum laude graduate of Pfeiffer College in North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in Christian education and religion. She earned a master’s degree in education leadership and a doctorate in higher education leadership and policy from Vanderbilt University.
From 1998-2000, Baxter was director of residence life and intramural activities, then dean of students, at Barton College in North Carolina. In 2000, she became head of member services and grants for the Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association, then its chief operating officer in 2007.
She and her husband, Mark Huffman, have two children: Inman, 11, and Wade, 6. Huffman is a self-employed consultant who works with board strategic planning, typically with nonprofits, LaGrange College spokeswoman Debby Baker told the Ledger-Enquirer.
This story was originally published April 29, 2020 at 5:40 PM.
