Office of the President

BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Suzanne Shipley is the 15th president of Shepherd University. She assumed office in June 2007.

Dr. Shipley hails from Texas and holds a bachelors and masters degree in German from Texas Tech University. She received her Ph.D. in German from the University of Texas at Austin and has spent much time living in Germany and traveling in Europe. Part of that time was funded by a Fulbright Scholarship and a German Academic Exchange Award. Dr. Shipley was awarded a postdoctoral research fellowship, and her research into the lives of German-Jewish women emigrants resulted in translations of several previously unpublished diaries from the Holocaust.

Her academic career began in Ohio and carried her to Arizona and Maryland before West Virginia. She has filled several administrative roles, including honors director, department chair, dean, and vice president for academic affairs. Dr. Shipley contributed to statewide efforts to enhance K-12 teacher preparation in Arizona and Maryland and hopes to do the same in West Virginia.

Dr. Shipley has served as a board member on the Arizona Humanities Council, the Arboretum in Flagstaff, and the Council of Fellows for the American Council on Education. Her past community outreach efforts include serving as co-chair of the capital campaign at a local church in Arizona and serving as an elder and chair of the personnel committee at Faith Presbyterian Church in Baltimore.

Dr. Shipley was recently asked by Dr. Brian Noland, chancellor of the West Virginia Higher Education Commission (HEPC), to co-chair the HEPC Council of Presidents with Dr. Hazo Carter, president of West Virginia State College. A member of the BB&T Regional Advisory Board, Dr. Shipley also is a member of the Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church and the Shepherdstown Rotary Club.

She is married to Randy Wadsworth, a clinical pharmacist, and they reside in Shepherd University's president's residence, Popodicon.