Members of RIC presidential search committee named by Postsecondary Education Board

PROVIDENCE — The Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education appointed a nine-member search committee Wednesday night to review candidates to take over the permanent position of president of Rhode Island College (RIC).

“We are committed to conducting a transparent and inclusive search,” Council Chair David Caprio said during a meeting at the Rhode Island Nurses Education Center.

Members of the search committee include Caprio and council member Rachelle Green; Rev. Jeffrey Williams; Associate Justice of Rhode Island Superior Court Kevin McHugh; former state Sen. Tom Izzo; Erik Christiansen, RIC faculty union president; Steve Smith, senior adviser to Providence Mayor Brett Smiley; Kenneth Gilbert, RIC manager of network operations; and RIC Associate Professor of Communications Valerie Endress.  

Caprio said the search committee will work with a search firm the council has yet to select, consulting with the Rhode Island College community, and vetting candidates for the position.

Jack Warner became interim president of Rhode Island College in July 2022 after the departure of Frank David Sánchez, who became president of the college in 2016. He will remain in the post until a new president is named. 

Before rising to the post, Warner served as an associate professor of higher education in the educational leadership program at Johnson and Wales University beginning in 2015.

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Before that he served as commissioner on the now-defunct Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education — the Council on Postsecondary Education’s predecessor —  from 2002 to 2009. 

Warner moved to South Dakota in 2009 and served as president and CEO of the South Dakota Board of Regents, which governs that state’s six public universities, until his return to Rhode Island in 2015.  

The Council on Postsecondary Education is expected to vote on a new president in January 2024.