Lisa Marsh Ryerson to Receive Honorary Degree

AURORA , NY (04/12/2010)(readMedia)-- Wells College President Lisa Marsh Ryerson will receive an honorary degree from State University of New York. Ryerson, who earned a Master of Science in Education from SUNY Cortland in 1991, will address graduates at the 9:30 a.m. undergraduate commencement exercises in Cortland's Park Center Alumni Arena on Saturday, May 22. Fellow alumnus and University of Wyoming President Thomas Buchanan, who received his Bachelor of Science in Recreation Education in 1974, will also receive an honorary degree and will speak at the 2:30 p.m. ceremony on the same day.

An experienced, innovative leader known for her advocacy of gender equity, the liberal arts and commitment to providing increased access to higher education, Ryerson has served as president of Wells College since 1995. The first alumna to become president of Wells College, she is the institution's 17th president and currently the senior college president in the region.

Nationally recognized for her progressive views on higher education and community partnerships, Ryerson speaks and writes about the benefits of inclusive coeducation, gender equality in education and society, women in leadership, and business-education partnerships among many other topics.

She has elevated the college's national standing as a leader in providing an excellent liberal arts education at an affordable price. Ryerson led the board of trustees through a planning and decision-making process that included opening the college's doors to matriculated male students for the first time in the college's history beginning in Fall 2005. She directed Wells' successful transition to coeducation and subsequent 45 percent increase in enrollment.

In February 2010, Ryerson announced the addition of an innovative business center to Wells' liberal arts offerings. This program puts Wells at the forefront of national efforts to revitalize undergraduate business programs by connecting them more fully to the liberal arts.

Ryerson played a key leadership and collaborative role in economically revitalizing the village of Aurora through the restoration and refurbishment of the college's extensive holdings in the village's commercial district. Additionally, she has overseen the construction of Stratton Hall, the college's state-of-the-art science facility. Under her leadership, Wells completed the largest and most successful fundraising effort in its history – a comprehensive campaign that surpassed its ambitious $50 million goal.

An active leader in many national, state and local organizations, Ryerson serves as a commissioner and executive committee member of the Middle States Commission on Higher Education; a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Management Council; a director of the Metropolitan Development Association (MDA) of Syracuse and Central New York; a director of the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra; a member of the Central New York Advisory Board of HSBC Bank; a member of the board of the Northwood School in Lake Placid, N.Y.; a trustee of Auburn Memorial Hospital; and member of the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art Community Advisory Committee at Cornell University.

Ryerson is a past chair of the Commission on Independent Colleges and Universities of New York State, the Executive Board of the Public Leadership Education Network and the Women's College Coalition in Washington, D.C. She is a vice chair of the Council of Independent Colleges, the American Council on Education's Commission on Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness, and the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.

She has been honored with the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) District II Chief Executive Leadership Award; a New York State Senate Woman of Distinction Award; the Girls Inc. of CNY Spirit of American Women National Role Model for Girls Award; the Central New York Chapter of The Public Relations Society of America Communications Advocate Award; a Post-Standard Achievement Award; and a Seven Lakes Girl Scout Council Woman of Distinction Award.

Ryerson, a Jamestown, N.Y. native, is the daughter of Carol and Murray S. Marsh. She resides in Aurora with her husband, George E. Farenthold, and three daughters, Annie, Carol and Julie.