Private College President on Higher Ed’s Future — And Her School’s Next Steps

In 2019, Lynn Ortale was asked to be on a peer review committee for a college in Albany, New York that was seeking accreditation through the Middle States Commission. It was her first time seeing Maria College and her first time in the area — and she loved it. A few years later, she received a message from an academic hiring platform inquiring about her interest in a newly open position as president of Maria. Ortale had been in higher education for more than 30 years, and had been vice president at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia for 13 years. After thinking it over, she decided to put her hat into the ring, and was named Maria College’s sixth president in 2022.