Advancing Private Higher Education

President's Office

Dr. Summer McGee began her tenure as Lenoir-Rhyne University’s 13th president on July 1, 2025. Named president on April 15, 2025, McGee brings a distinguished academic and leadership career to LR. Formerly president of Salem Academy and College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, she is the first woman to lead the university in LR's 134-year history.

 
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Dr. Summer McGee

I am humbled and honored to be the 13th president of Lenoir-Rhyne University. What calls me to Lenoir-Rhyne is its simultaneous commitment to excellence, faith, tradition, and innovation, through its nationally recognized academic programs, its deep integration of values-based education with real-world impact, and the excellence that Bears bring to all they do, whether in competition, learning, or service. I look forward to partnering with Lenoir-Rhyne’s faculty, staff, and students as we continue its tradition of excellence while embracing its mission and commitments.

—Dr. Summer McGee, President

 
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Under her leadership from 2021-2025, Salem implemented strategic initiatives that improved enrollment and financial stability, including three consecutive years of continuous growth in incoming class size—more than a 400 percent increase—as well as its incoming students’ academic qualifications and geographical reach. Her tenure has also been marked by record-breaking fundraising and strengthened financial health. The college also added 11 new academic programs, three new NCAA sports, and new accelerated dual-degree programs and community partnerships.

A scholar of health policy and bioethics, McGee has published widely on social, political, and ethical issues in healthcare and biomedical science with a particular focus on the importance of education and public engagement for solving problems of public health. Her comments have appeared in major international and national media including the New York Times, ABC News, the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press.

McGee is also an award-winning professor. She received the American College of Healthcare Executives Distinguished Faculty Regents Award in 2014 and was named in 2015 as one of the Top 50 U.S. Healthcare Management Professors. McGee received the University of New Haven’s Excellence in Teaching award in 2017.

Play video Summer McGee
Welcome Event Remarks

At the April 25, 2025 Presidential Welcome Event, Dr. Summer McGee introduced herself to the Lenoir-Rhyne community, sharing her story, professional background, family and passion for higher education.

Prior to her presidency at Salem, McGee was the founding dean of the School of Health Sciences at the University of New Haven in Connecticut, a Division II institution with more than 9,000 students, where she served as faculty from 2013 through 2021. Her time as dean was marked by significant growth, including the hiring of full-time faculty, the design and opening of a new health sciences building, 10 new degree programs including the university’s second doctoral program, and increased undergraduate and graduate enrollment. She led the university’s strategic planning committee and directed its COVID response team in addition to her duties as dean.  She also served as an associate professor of management in New Haven’s Pompea College of Business.  

She serves on the Council of Independent Colleges Board of Directors as well as the Executive Committee of the North Carolina Council of Independent Colleges, REACH Women’s Network Advisory Board, the North Carolina Biotech Advisory Board for the Triad region, and the Novant Health Triad Region Board.

A native of Wheatfield, Indiana, McGee earned bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and bioethics from Indiana University Bloomington, where she received the Henry B. Wells award, the institution’s highest honor for an undergraduate student. She then earned a Ph.D. in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is married to Dr. Glenn McGee, an academic who served for 31 years as a professor and academic administrator. She is a stepparent to their three adult sons, Ethan, Austin, and Aidan.

Presidential Search Process

Students walking along campus sidewalk with LR red banners on light posts

The appointment of Dr. Summer McGee as LR's 13th president concludes a comprehensive and inclusive search process. The Board of Trustees formed a 17-member search committee comprised of faculty, staff, students and alumni, to lead the national search.

The process included more than a dozen in-person listening sessions and an online survey to gather input on the desired qualities and qualifications of the next president. The search firm, Coleman Lew Canny Bowen, identified a robust applicant pool of more than 150 individuals.

The search committee focused its intensive review on more than one dozen of the most highly qualified candidates, ultimately recommending McGee as the ideal leader to advance Lenoir-Rhyne’s mission.

View Presidential Search