Project Description
CarterBaldwin Executive Search, together with our colleagues at Gordon College, is pleased to announce that following a seven-month national search, Dr. Michael D. Hammond will serve as the school’s ninth president beginning July 1.
An accomplished scholar and proven leader with 25 years’ experience in Christian higher education, Hammond currently serves as the provost and executive vice president at Taylor University. Prior to Taylor, Hammond led the Department of Historical, Legal, and Leadership Studies at Southeastern University.
“We strongly believe Dr. Hammond embodies the qualities, attributes and aspirations voiced by the many members of the Gordon community who provided input for this search and care deeply about Gordon and its future,” said Carrie Tibbles, MD ’93, a member of the College’s Board of Trustees who chaired the search committee. “Throughout this detailed assessment process, Mike Hammond exhibited a rare combination of academic credibility, an effective and collaborative leadership style, deep spiritual character and maturity, a heart for students, and a passion for Christian higher education.”
An Indiana native who trained as a historian, Hammond’s career has also taken him to Washington, DC, Tampa, and Chicago. He earned his PhD at the University of Arkansas, his MA at Wheaton College in Illinois, and his BA from Taylor University. In his scholarly work he has published and lectured extensively on American Christianity and the civil rights movement, specifically on how the intersection of race and religion in the 20th century played out in the United States. This will give him unique insights into similarly relevant issues today in our country and on college campuses.
“Dr. Hammond stood out among a strong pool of candidates as both an innovator and a consensus builder who brings wisdom and a vision for our future. We are confident he is the right leader at the right time to successfully lead the College through the changes and challenges confronting institutions of higher education,” said Herman J. Smith, Jr. ’70, chair of Gordon’s Board of Trustees.
The Presidential Search Committee included 11 members of Gordon’s Board of Trustees and representatives from the College’s faculty and staff. With assistance from executive search firm CarterBaldwin, they evaluated a diverse and distinguished pool of more than 70 applicants, including 10 current presidents at other institutions.
Read the full release from Gordon College.
Read more about Hammond’s journey to Gordon College.
About Gordon College
Founded in 1889 as a missionary training institute in Boston, Gordon College has become one of America’s top Christian liberal arts colleges. With more than 2,000 undergraduate and graduate students on a 485-acre campus on Boston’s North Shore, Gordon’s mission is to graduate women and men distinguished by intellectual maturity and Christian character, committed to lives of service and prepared for leadership worldwide.
