Carroll Stevens, a Daviess County High School graduate of 1967, has been appointed as interim President of Rhodes College by their board of trustees. He will begin serving this summer when President Marjorie Hass departs Rhodes.
“I’m honored that the Board of Trustees has asked me to step in to lead Rhodes during this important interim period,” Stevens said. “I look forward to working with the faculty, staff, and students to continue to implement the college’s strategic initiatives and help recruit the college’s 21st president.”
Stevens is currently a member of the Rhodes College Board of Trustees. He will assume his duties July 1 and serve until replaced by the incoming 21st president of the College. Stevens will not be a candidate for the permanent role.
“Carroll will add depth, breadth and a generous, positive and creative spirit to our leadership team at Rhodes,” Board Chair Cary Fowler said. “As we carry out the search to replace President Hass, who is becoming head of the Council of Independent Colleges in Washington, I know the college is in good hands and will continue to move forward with Carroll Stevens and our great staff and faculty.”
Stevens recently served as Vice President for Advancement at Claremont McKenna College, one the nation’s foremost liberal arts colleges.
From 1987-2005 he was Associate Dean of the Yale University School of Law, and prior to that Associate Dean of the College of Law at the University of Kentucky. He has served as an executive with the Stupski Foundation, whose multi-year commitment to K-12 public education extended to 23 communities across the country.
Since 2013 Stevens has served as president of the company foundation of Ardeo Education Solutions, a public benefit corporation which provides loan repayment assistance to students at over 200 U.S. colleges.
Stevens holds a B.A. degree from Georgetown College and a J.D. degree from the University of Kentucky. In 2006 Georgetown awarded him the degree Doctor of Laws honoris causa. He is an Honorary Fellow at Regent’s Park College of Oxford University, a status conferred for his long service on the College’s Governing Body.
Stevens has distinguished himself as one of the country’s top innovative leaders in education. He has held leadership and advisory roles in education companies and nonprofits in the realms of technology, management consulting, and college affordability and access, focusing especially on children in poverty and children of color.
He was the founding chairman of Achievement First, one of the nation’s largest public independent school systems, which operates more than 40 charter schools in the Northeast.
