Laura A. Sykes says she will provide “a familiar face for the college” as she returns from retirement to become the interim president of Colby-Sawyer College after 30 years of service there. The former academic vice president and dean of faculty, Sykes retired last year to tour the country and go rock-climbing with her husband. That is when then-President Susan D. Stuebner accepted a position elsewhere and the college came calling.
“It’s really about continuing the progress Sue made in supporting our new graduate and professional studies program, and undergraduate studies,” Sykes says of her priorities. “I’m a bridge to the next president.”
She credits Stuebner with strengthening Colby-Sawyer’s academic offerings by adding several graduate programs, doubling the college’s endowment and bolstering ties with
the community.
But Sykes has also made a mark in her three decades at the school. Sykes came to Colby-Sawyer in 1993 as a student, joined the Colby-Sawyer environmental studies faculty in 2001, serving as chair of the environmental studies department from 2013 to 2016. She was honored as NH’s Environmental Educator of the Year in 2014.
Appointed interim academic vice president in 2016, she was later chosen as permanent academic vice president and dean of faculty, roles she held for seven years. Under her leadership, the school boosted its health sciences offerings at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and redesigned the liberal education program.
Last year, she was awarded the college’s highest honor, the Susan Colgate Cleveland Medal for Distinguished Service.
Sykes anticipates some familiar challenges in her new role, including budget constraints and enrollment concerns. As for the future, she expects Colby-Sawyer will “continue to generate new and focused programming with an eye to the specific workforce needs in the region” and to form additional partnerships with businesses in the region. She will serve as interim president from mid-August through May 2025.
Current Issue - September 2024