I hope your summer is off to a good start.
I would like to provide you with an update regarding the national search for the Mitchell Hamline School of Law’s new president and dean. (Please note: faculty members received a version of this correspondence last week because of the faculty’s summer schedule.)
Search committee members
An inclusive search committee composed of 14 members has been identified to represent Mitchell Hamline’s multiple constituencies in the search. the committee includes faculty, administration, staff, student, alumni/ae, and board of trustees representatives. Lynette Fraction, executive assistant to the president and dean and administrative manager, is providing staff support. The members, beyond myself, include:
- Landon Ascheman, alumni board
- Thomas Bowen, student (blended learning)
- Patrick Garay-Heelan, board of trustees
- Nicole James Gilchrist, ex officio chair, board of trustees
- Lisa Heidenreich, staff
- Jim Hilbert, administration
- Michael Jordan, faculty
- Ana Pottratz Acosta, faculty
- Sharon Press, faculty
- Reen Reinhardt, student (on campus)
- Ugo Ukabam, board of trustees
- Anthony Varela, staff
- Melissa Wright, board of trustees
Thank you to all of the search committee members for giving their time and taking on this important role.
Search Firm Information
The committee’s first task was to identify a firm to assist with the search. The committee issued an RFP and received eight strong proposals. After interviewing the top three firms, the committee retained Storbeck Search, a nationally known and highly respected executive search firm, to assist Mitchell Hamline in the search. Managing Director Julie Tea and Managing Associate Anne Koellhoffer are facilitating the search process. They will work with the search committee to build and vet a strong and diverse candidate pool and will assist the committee in developing its final report for the board of trustees.
Community participation
The Storbeck Search team will engage Mitchell Hamline’s community members throughout the summer in several virtual open sessions. Sessions for the faculty and the Faculty DEI Committee—including the Office of DEI—have been set, and those details were shared via the earlier memo to faculty. Sessions for students, staff, administrators, alumni, and trustees are being organized, and those details will be shared shortly.
The consultants will be seeking your thoughts on the challenges and opportunities for new leadership and the skill sets and personal attributes most highly desired in the candidate of choice.
In addition to the open sessions, an electronic survey is being made available for community members to share their thoughts. The survey is available at www.surveymonkey.com/r/MHSLPresidentandDeanSurvey. Please feel free to access the link and complete the survey by Monday, August 7 at 5 pm CT.
Thank you in advance for your willingness to participate in these important exchanges about Mitchell Hamline’s next chapter. We are eager to hear your perspectives.
Selection process
Having gathered information from these sessions and via the survey, our consulting team will then compile a draft of the search profile, an important document that will describe Mitchell Hamline as well as the leadership agenda for the next president and dean. Our consultants will share the draft with the search committee for editing and revision before it is distributed to the Mitchell Hamline community and beyond to garner nominations and expressions of interest. We anticipate having a completed search profile to share in late August.
The committee will review candidates’ credentials throughout the early autumn and conduct two rounds of committee interviews with leading candidates in November. We anticipate finalist interviews with the Mitchell Hamline community will occur in mid-December or early January with the hopes that the president and dean-elect will be identified by the board of trustees in late January or early February 2024.
The search is off to a good start. I will write to you again as we enter subsequent stages of the process. If you have any questions, please be in touch at Dean.Search@mitchellhamline.edu. Thank you for your support.
Jim Jacobson, vice chair of the board of trustees and chair of the president and dean search committee