Kent State University president to step down after this academic year

KENT

The president of Kent State University says she’ll be stepping down from that job next year.

University President Beverly Warren said in a letter to staff and students this past week that she’ll leave July 1 at the end of her current contract.

The 70-year-old Warren wrote that she’s spent her career making work the priority, but will shift her focus to “family and personal considerations” when she leaves.

Warren became KSU’s second woman president in 2014 after serving as provost and senior vice president of Virginia Commonwealth University.

Kent State Provost Todd Diacon says Warren’s transformation of the university “will serve as a lasting legacy of a job well done.”

University spokesman Eric Mansfield says search plans for Warren’s successor will be revealed in the coming weeks.