Carolyn Newton Named Provost at College of Wooster

Will take up new duties as chief academic officer July 1

WOOSTER, Ohio, Feb. 4 – Carolyn R. Newton has been named provost at The College of Wooster, capping a national search that began last May. She will take up her new duties as Wooster’s chief academic officer on July 1. 

As provost, Newton will have broad responsibility for the college’s academic and co-curricular programs, including curriculum, faculty development, athletics, libraries, and academic administration and support areas, as well as the College of Wooster Art Museum and the College of Wooster Nursery School. 

Newton is currently academic vice president and provost at Berea College in Berea, Ky., a position she has held since 2005. At Berea, she has led efforts to create a culture of scholarly achievement, reinvigorate the departmental self-study process, and enhance student engagement. In addition to broad oversight of the academic program, her portfolio includes athletics, enrollment management, and institutional research, and an overall annual budget of more than $9 million.

From 1998 to 2005, Newton served as associate provost at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Mich., where her responsibilities included coordinating the development and writing of a new strategic plan, developing and directing the orientation program for new faculty, and facilitating the writing of grant proposals, including two to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute for a total of $1.9 million.

“We are very fortunate to have someone of Carolyn’s deep and broad experience with academic leadership coming to join us at Wooster,” said President Grant H. Cornwell. “She has chosen to join us because of our mission and character, and we chose her because she understands us so well. The fit between her experience and values and Wooster simply could not be better.”

“To me the quality of an academic institution is revealed by the nature of the student experience,” Newton said. “At Wooster I met students who spoke eloquently about their transformative learning environment and faculty dedicated to helping their students achieve great things, perhaps even insisting that they do so.  It was clear to me that the faculty and staff at Wooster care profoundly about the quality of the academic program, about engaging students through research and experiential learning, and about providing the support needed for students to succeed.  I knew, even from the few days I spent at Wooster, that this was no ordinary institution, and I am deeply honored to be selected to serve as provost.”

Newton joined the faculty at Kalamazoo in 1978 as an assistant professor of biology. She was promoted to associate professor in 1984 and full professor in 1995. She also served as department chair from 1990 to 1994. Her research interests, which lie in the areas of immunology and cell biology, include serum mannose-binding proteins as primitive immune molecules, receptor-mediated endocytosis, and membrane biochemistry.

Newton earned her bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Colorado State University, and her doctorate in biophysical sciences from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

The College of Wooster is an independent liberal arts college, nationally recognized for an innovative curriculum that emphasizes mentored, independent research. Each Wooster senior works one-on-one with a faculty adviser to create an original research project, written work, performance or art exhibit. Founded in 1866, the college enrolls approximately 1,800 students.