JACKSON – The search for Mississippi University for Women’s next leader has officially kicked off, Commissioner of Higher Education Hank Bounds announced on Wednesday.

The goal is to have that president named by the end of the calendar year, Bounds said.

The Board of Trustees for Mississippi’s Institutions of Higher Learning is currently calling for nominations for members of a Campus Search Advisory Committee that will help with the search and recommend candidates to be interviewed. That committee will represent all stakeholder groups, Bounds said, including students, alumni, faculty, staff and community members.

The deadline for recommendations for members of the Campus Search Advisory Committee is June 3. Nominations cane be emailed to muwsearch@mississippi.edu or mailed to ATTN: MUW Campus Search Advisory Committee, Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning, 3825 Ridgewood Road, Jackson, MS 39211.

Listening sessions with teachers, students and alums will be conducted during the fall, as will interviews and campus visits by the preferred candidate.

Parker Executive Search of Atlanta will conduct the search.

The new president will replace Claudia Limbert, who retired last June. Allegra Brigham has filled that role in an interim capacity since then.

The IHL also had to fill openings at Alcorn State University and Jackson State University last fall. The plan was to fill those two vacancies first and then begin the MUW search after the legislative session ended, Bounds said.

For more on this story, see Thursday’s NEMS Daily Journal newspaper.