Dr. Michael Lewis has been named the 12th President of Saint Anselm College, effective July 1, 2026. Dr. Lewis currently serves as Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri with a campus in Madrid, Spain.
In June 2025, President Joseph A. Favazza, Ph.D. announced that he would retire on June 30, 2026 following seven years of leadership at Saint Anselm. A formal search process for the next President was launched, led by the Presidential Search Committee and search firm Russell Reynolds Associates.
The Search Committee conducted a variety of listening sessions with Saint Anselm stakeholder groups, along with a community-wide survey, to gather input on the priorities for and qualities desired in the next President. The extensive feedback significantly informed the Presidential Prospectus, and the College was fortunate to receive a large and highly qualified pool of applicants.
Following a nationwide search over nine months, the Presidential Search Committee unanimously submitted Dr. Lewis as its choice. He then received a unanimous vote of approval from the Board of Trustees.
Among his many impressive attributes, Dr. Lewis is a strong listener who builds deep relationships with others, he has made difficult decisions with the mission as the guide, and he and his wife view serving in Catholic higher education as their vocation and life calling.
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Messages & Updates
Dear Friends,
Last night, I shared with the Board of Trustees that this coming academic year will be my last as president of Saint Anselm College. I will retire on June 30, 2026. I had planned to retire earlier but decided to extend my tenure to keep the momentum going at the college. But Paddy and I agree that it is time to begin the next phase of our exciting life together next year.
I am so proud of our many accomplishments and the direction we have charted for the future of Saint Anselm. The key to our success, in part, has been our willingness to push ourselves to grow and innovate while remaining true to our mission and identity.
Nearly six years ago, during my inaugural address, I said we will not limit our challenges out of fear or conflict or timidity; rather, we will challenge our limits by coming together to accomplish the hard but necessary things to keep this college vital for the next generation and the generation after that.
With this in mind, I am beginning this next year filled with energy and enthusiasm – and a conviction to continue the great momentum we have gained. I am deeply committed to working together with the Board of Trustees, our faculty, staff, and administration – as well as the entire Saint Anselm community – to complete our Vision 2025 strategic plan and begin Ascent to the Hilltop: Vision 2030.
An announcement about the next steps in the Presidential search process will be shared with the campus early next week. While change brings uncertainty, I remain excited about the future of our beloved college and I hope you are as well.
Thank you all and let’s keep moving!
Joseph A. Favazza, Ph.D.
President
To the Saint Anselm community,
On Thursday at the Board of Trustees dinner, President Favazza announced that this coming academic year (2025-2026) will be the last year of his term as president of Saint Anselm College.
Over the past six years, we have witnessed Joe’s steadfast leadership and the great momentum he has generated as he guided us into the future while remaining deeply committed to our Catholic and Benedictine mission and identity. He has been exactly the leader we needed at this point in the college’s history, and we are grateful for his talents and contributions across all parts of our community.
Given the momentum on campus in achieving the Vision 2025 Strategic Plan goals, and the broad support for the new Vision 2030 Strategic Plan, the Board of Trustees is grateful to Dr. Favazza and looks forward to benefitting from his wisdom, experience, and service to the institution for an additional year. While leadership transitions inevitably bring forth questions about what the future holds, the college has made significant progress and we are pleased that Joe will continue to drive our success while we find the right candidate to continue moving Saint Anselm forward.
Per the college’s bylaws, we are pleased to share with you that we have appointed a Presidential Search Committee. The Committee Members are:
- Search Committee Chair Michael Riegel ’92, Board of Trustees Secretary
- Search Committee Vice Chair Joseph Loughrey, Board of Trustees Chair
- Susan Connelly '92, Board of Trustees Mission and Identity Committee Chair
- Br. Dunstan Enzor, O.S.B., Trustee and Assistant Professor of Theology
- Bill Furlong, Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer
- James Van Hoof ’85, Board of Trustees Treasurer
- Jeb Lavelle ’82, Board of Trustees Vice Chair
- Colby Lynch, Student Representative and Student Government Association President
- Abbot Isaac Murphy, O.S.B., Chancellor and Trustee
- Beth Rickenbach, Professor of Psychology and Community & Public Health Faculty Leader
- Steve Shea, Faculty Senate President and Department of Mathematics Chair
- Diane Uzarski, Dean of Jean School of Nursing and Health Sciences
- In addition to the Search Committee members, Vice President of Human Resources and Institutional Equity Molly McKean and Trustee Bob Savard will serve as resources to the Committee given their extensive experiences in human resources and executive search.
We anticipate the search will run during the upcoming academic year. We are committed to providing regular updates on our progress. It is our intention to present a finalist to the full Board of Trustees in Spring 2026 so the new president may begin in July 2026.
As we transition from Vision 2025 to Ascent to the Hilltop: Vision 2030, we are fortunate to have a leader like Joe preparing us for the next chapter of the college’s future.
Sincerely,
F. Joseph Loughrey
Chair, Board of Trustees
Abbot Isaac Murphy, O.S.B.
Chancellor
Dear Members of the Saint Anselm College Community,
I hope everyone is having a lovely summer! As summer has progressed, our Presidential Search Committee has met multiple times, and we are now ready to begin gathering input from the college community to help define and develop the leadership profile and position description for our next President. Your input will be essential in helping determine the skills, experiences, and qualities we seek to recruit for the role.
We will conduct a wide range of listening sessions via Zoom over the next four to six weeks. Please keep an eye out for a session invitation from me via email for these important sessions. We recognize that with summer vacation plans, not everyone will be able to attend the offered sessions. Therefore, we will also be offering a limited number of sessions in late August for those who are unable to attend during the summer.
Our search is being supported by two excellent consultants from Russell Reynolds Associates: Anne Coyle and Zach Messitte. Anne and Zach will be hosting these Zoom sessions and will be on campus in the early fall for a few additional meetings.
Thank you for taking the time to attend these important sessions.
Mike Riegel
Chair - Presidential Search Committee
Dear Members of the Saint Anselm College community,
In June, we announced that President Joseph A. Favazza, Ph.D., will be retiring on June 30, 2026. Since then, we have appointed a Presidential Search Committee and held dozens of listening sessions to gather input on the qualities and experiences we hope to attract in our next President. We are grateful to all those who took the time to attend one of the listening sessions, and for the thoughtfulness, passion, and love of the College that came through clearly.
As the next phase of our search process, we are now seeking input from the broad community via a brief survey that includes an open section for comments. This survey is crucial as it will help us understand the expectations and hopes for our next President. Please complete the survey by Aug. 29, so that we may incorporate the feedback into our Search Committee meetings in early September.
A link to the survey is here. Thank you for taking the time to provide your input.
On behalf of the Presidential Search Committee,
Mike Riegel ‘92
Board of Trustees Secretary
Chair, Presidential Search Committee
Dear Members of the Saint Anselm College community,
Thank you for your active participation and engagement in our search process! Over the past few months, we have held dozens of listening sessions with several hundred participants, both online and in person. To date, 1,050 community members have completed the online survey. We appreciate everyone’s input and thoughtfulness, and the engagement highlights once again how special the College is to everyone involved. We are pleased and encouraged by the turnout and our discussions about the attractions of this leadership role, the priorities, and the qualities we seek in our next president.
Your feedback has helped shape the Presidential Prospectus. This is an important milestone in our search process, as it is both a marketing document for prospective candidates and a guiding document for our Search Committee to use as we begin interviewing candidates later this Fall.
Now that the role has been defined, we encourage everyone to submit names of potential candidates to our search efforts. Email candidate suggestions to: saintanselm@russellreynolds.com. We will follow up with all suggestions.
I also wanted to inform you that there has been a change in one member of our Presidential Search Committee. As you may have seen, Board of Trustees Chair Joe Loughrey has stepped down from the Board to focus on caring for his wife, Debbie, as she recovers from a serious accident. Please continue to keep Joe and Debbie in your prayers. Accordingly, Abbot Isaac and Jeb Lavelle, our new Board Chair, following the bylaws, have appointed Kevin Fitzgerald to the Search Committee. Kevin is a member of the Board of Trustees and, as Chair of the Advancement Committee, also serves on the Board Executive Committee. He is a member of the Class of 2000.
I will be on campus during the week of October 6-10, and I am happy to meet with anyone regarding the Search.
Thank you, everyone, for your engagement thus far!
Mike
Mike Riegel ’92
Board of Trustees Secretary
Chair, Presidential Search Committee
Dear Members of the Saint Anselm College community,
As we enter the holiday season and experience the first snowfall of the year on the Hilltop, I wanted to give you a quick update on our Presidential Search.
We are very pleased with the pool of candidates who have expressed interest in becoming our next President. The recent successes at the College, such as the opening of the new Jean School of Nursing & Health Sciences at Grappone Hall, our recent decision to move to three schools, our growing enrollment, and the record-setting donation by the Grappone Family have created an excitement about the future of the College that is attractive to our prospect pool.
While we still have extensive work to do, we are on schedule to announce a new President sometime in the Spring Semester.
Please continue to pray for our Search Committee, and I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season.
- Mike
Mike Riegel ’92
Board of Trustees - Vice-Chair
Chair, Presidential Search Committee
Dear Saint Anselm community,
We invite you to join us as we introduce the 12th President of Saint Anselm College. This is a historic moment in the life of our institution, and we hope you will be part of it as we welcome an experienced and dynamic leader who will guide our community into its next chapter.
Please join us in person:
Koonz Theatre, Dana Center for the Performing Arts
Date: Monday, March 9
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Or watch via livestream: https://vimeo.com/event/5768896
An informal reception will take place in the lobby of the Dana Center following the announcement.
We were fortunate to have a large and highly qualified pool of applicants, and we are very excited to introduce our new President to the Saint Anselm Community on March 9. I wish to extend my deepest gratitude to the members of our Presidential Search Committee, whose tireless efforts in reviewing and evaluating candidates have led us to this milestone moment.
With gratitude and excitement,
Mike Riegel ‘92
Chair - Presidential Search Committee
Vice-Chair – Saint Anselm Board of Trustees
To members of the Saint Anselm community,
It is my honor to announce the appointment of Dr. Michael Lewis as the 12th president of Saint Anselm College, effective July 1, 2026. Dr. Lewis currently serves as Provost and Chief Academic Officer at Saint Louis University in St. Louis, Missouri with a campus in Madrid, Spain.
Dr. Lewis received his BSc in Chemistry from Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1996 and his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, MO in 2001. He was a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Harvard University from 2001 to 2004.
Dr. Lewis joined Saint Louis University’s Department of Chemistry in 2004. As a faculty member, he received multiple teaching awards and authored numerous scholarly publications. Appointed Provost in 2020, he has been responsible for supporting major initiatives advancing the University’s Strategic Plan and has been responsible for the development and implementation of all academic strategic priorities, as well as the Academic Affairs budget. He also has been overseeing 11 schools and Deans, plus their campus in Madrid, Spain.
Saint Louis University is a Catholic, Jesuit liberal arts institution and the fifth-largest Catholic university in the United States with more than 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students. Like Saint Anselm, it integrates the liberal arts, humanities, and sciences into its core mission and curriculum.
Dr. Lewis was born and raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He and his wife Heather have two children; Jack is a sophomore in college and Grace a junior in high school. Heather Lewis is an Associate Clinical Professor of Social Work and they look forward to joining the Saint Anselm community.
Over the past seven years, Dr. Joseph A. Favazza has guided Saint Anselm into the future with steadfast leadership and a vision that has generated significant momentum for the College. As he passes the baton, we are very excited for the experience and perspective Dr. Lewis will bring to the Hilltop. He is a passionate believer in a liberal arts education and has strong experience shaping and growing Schools, increasing in-person undergraduate enrollment, and creating and expanding online graduate programs.
We were fortunate to have a large and highly qualified pool of applicants and Dr. Lewis was the unanimous choice of the Presidential Search Committee and received a unanimous vote of approval from the Board of Trustees. Among his many impressive attributes, Dr. Lewis is a strong listener who builds deep relationships with others, he cares deeply for students’ welfare and success, he has made difficult decisions with the mission as the guide, and he and his wife view serving in Catholic higher education as their vocation and life calling.
I wish to extend my deepest gratitude to the members of our Presidential Search Committee, which comprised representatives from the Trustees, faculty, administration, students, and the monastic community, whose tireless efforts in reviewing and evaluating candidates have led us to this milestone moment.
On behalf of Saint Anselm College’s Board of Trustees, please join me in welcoming Dr. Lewis and his family to Saint Anselm College.
Jeb Lavelle ’82
Board of Trustees, Chair
Presidential Prospectus
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