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Kathleen Jagger named new president of Newman University
WICHITA, Kan. — Former DePauw University faculty member Kathleen Jagger has been named president of Newman University.
Jagger was selected by the university’s board of trustees May 29 after a nine-month search. She succeeds Noreen Carrocci after her December retirement.
“It is indeed an honor and a privilege to be chosen to lead Newman University as its next president,” Jagger said in a news release. “Today, the challenges for university presidents are unprecedented but so are the opportunities.”
Jagger most recently was acting president at Thomas More University in Crestview Hills, Ky., where she was also a vice president and dean. She created the school’s Institute for Ethical Leadership and Interdisciplinary Studies and led the transition from a college to a university.
“People are going to love Kathleen,” Newman board chairman J.T. Klaus said. “She has an impressive and vast background in higher education and has also worked in the private health sector. She will be a hands-on leader who is innovative, inclusive, authentic and service-minded. Kathleen is the right leader for these challenging times facing Newman and all of higher education.”
Jagger received her Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. She has a master’s degree in public health from the Harvard School of Public Health and a 1975 bachelor’s degree in zoology from DePauw University. She taught at DePauw for 19 years. She followed in teaching and administrative roles at Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., for 13 years.
Her husband, Jim Jagger, was director of athletic medicine and team doctor for University of Kentucky athletics.
“My husband Jim and I were captivated on our visit to Wichita by the extraordinary hospitality which permeated its culture even during a period of lockdown due to COVID,” she said. “We look forward to becoming active members of the Wichita community.”