President Designate

One of the greatest satisfactions of my professional life has been service as a director of the Teagle Foundation for the past two decades, most recently as Chair of the Board. During that time I have worked closely with two outstanding presidents, Dick Kimball and Bob Connor. Collaborating with a distinguished board and talented staff, both of these presidents have crafted grant programs that have fulfilled the founder Walter Teagle’s goal of providing young people with an opportunity to gain a college education of the highest quality.

My colleagues on the Board have now turned to me to provide executive leadership for the Foundation. I have willingly accepted their request because of the telling challenges and opportunities that are at hand for higher education and the work of the Foundation. Bob Connor has set us on the course of involving faculty in finding new ways to use evidence to improve student learning. This has become a successful and exciting aspect of our work that deserves to be brought to fruition. To do so during a time of stiff financial challenges will lead us to sharpen our focus but not forsake our ambitious goals. I look forward to developing a strategy for the next phase of the Foundation’s programs based on my deep commitment to liberal education. Bob’s imaginative leadership will serve as a model, though he has set a very high standard to follow. I intend to call on him for his continuing good counsel.

I plan to do the work of the Foundation both in New York City as well as in my office at the University of Richmond, where I serve as Chancellor, a largely honorary position reserved for former presidents of the University. I look forward to working collaboratively with our current and future grant recipients and leaders in higher education to develop programs that are responsive to their goals and the wider possibilities that await us.

Richard L. Morrill
February 2009

Biography