Anita Gustafson

Last updated

Anita Gustafson
20th President of Presbyterian College
Assumed office
August 1, 2023
Signature Anita Gustafson signature.png

Anita Olson Gustafson (born March 3, 1961) is an American historian and academic administrator who is the 20th and current president of Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina. She took office on August 1, 2023, and was most recently the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.

Contents

Early life and education

Gustafson was born Anita Ruth Olson on March 3, 1961; [1] she is a native of Fort Lauderdale, Florida. [2] She attended North Park University in Chicago, where she received a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and Swedish, before earning a Master of Arts and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. [3] She was named a Northwestern University Dissertation Fellow in 1988. [4]

Career

Gustafson began teaching history at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, in 1997. [2] She was chair of the history department from 2000 to 2004, [2] and was professor of the year in 2007, the same year she received the South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities Excellence in Teaching Award. [4] She was interim dean of academic programs at Presbyterian from 2005 to 2007 and was interim provost for a two-year stint from 2010 to 2012. [2]

On March 25, 2016, Gustafson was named dean of the Mercer University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, effective August 1 of that year. She replaced Lake Lambert, who left the job to take the presidency of Hanover University. [2] In addition to leading the college, she taught in the history department. [3]

After Presbyterian College president Matthew vandenBerg announced his intention to step down, the school began a national search that concluded on June 27, 2023, with an announcement that Gustafson would be the school's 20th president, effective August 1, 2023. She is the first female president in the college's history. [5] She was formally inaugurated on April 26, 2024. [6]

Work and research

Gustafson's work focuses largely on the history of Swedish immigration, particularly into the United States, and Swedish-American communities in the United States. [3] Her manuscript, Swedish Chicago: The Shaping of an Immigrant Community, 1880–1920, was published by Northern Illinois University Press on December 14, 2018. [7]

Personal life

Gustafson and her husband have one son. [8]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Carolina</span> U.S. state

South Carolina is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia to the southwest and south across the Savannah River. Along with North Carolina, it makes up the Carolinas region of the East Coast. South Carolina is the 40th-largest and 23rd-most populous U.S. state with a recorded population of 5,118,425 according to the 2020 census. In 2019, its GDP was $213.45 billion. South Carolina is composed of 46 counties. The capital is Columbia with a population of 136,632 in 2020; while its most populous city is Charleston with a 2020 population of 150,227. The Greenville-Spartanburg-Anderson, SC Combined Statistical Area is the most populous combined metropolitan area in the state, with an estimated 2023 population of 1,590,636.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monmouth College</span> Private liberal arts college in Monmouth, Illinois, U.S.

Monmouth College is a private Presbyterian liberal arts college in Monmouth, Illinois. It enrolls approximately 767 students who choose courses from 40 major programs, 43 minors, and 17 pre-professional programs in a core curriculum. It offers Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science degrees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macalester College</span> Private college in Saint Paul, Minnesota, US

Macalester College is a private liberal arts college in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1874, Macalester is exclusively an undergraduate four-year institution with an enrollment of 2,142 students in the fall of 2023. The college has Scottish roots and emphasizes internationalism and multiculturalism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwestern University</span> Private university in Evanston, Illinois, U.S.

Northwestern University (NU) is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest chartered university in Illinois. The university has its main campus along the shores of Lake Michigan in the Chicago metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Furman University</span> Private university in Greenville, South Carolina, US

Furman University is a private university in Greenville, South Carolina, United States. Founded in 1826 and named after Baptist pastor Richard Furman, the liberal arts university is the oldest private institution of higher learning in South Carolina. It became a secular university in 1992, while keeping Christo et Doctrinae as its motto. As of Fall 2021, it enrolls approximately 2,300 undergraduate students and 150 graduate students on its 750-acre (304 ha) campus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Carolina Central University</span> Public historically black university in Durham, North Carolina, US

North Carolina Central University is a public historically black university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by James E. Shepard in affiliation with the Chautauqua movement in 1909, it was supported by private funds from both Northern and Southern philanthropists. It was made part of the state system in 1923, when it first received state funding and was renamed as Durham State Normal School. It added graduate classes in arts and sciences and professional schools in law and library science in the late 1930s and 1940s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North Park University</span> Christian university in Chicago, Illinois, US

North Park University is a private Christian university in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded in 1891 by the Evangelical Covenant Church. It is located on Chicago's north side in the North Park community area and enrolls more than 2,600 undergraduate and graduate students.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barber–Scotia College</span> Historically black college in Concord, North Carolina, US

Barber–Scotia College is a private unaccredited historically black college in Concord, North Carolina. It began as a seminary in 1867 before becoming a college in 1916. It is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Davidson College</span> Private college in Davidson, North Carolina, US

Davidson College is a private liberal arts college in Davidson, North Carolina. It was established in 1837 by the Concord Presbytery and named after Revolutionary War general William Lee Davidson, who was killed at the nearby Battle of Cowan's Ford.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erskine College</span> Christian college in Due West, South Carolina, US

Erskine College is a private Christian college in Due West, South Carolina, United States. It is an undergraduate liberal arts college and a graduate theological seminary. The college was founded in 1839 by the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Its sports teams compete in NCAA Division II as a member of Conference Carolinas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Presbyterian College</span> Presbyterian college in Clinton, South Carolina, US

Presbyterian College (PC) is a private liberal arts college in Clinton, South Carolina, United States. It was founded in 1880 and is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Mercer Langston</span> American politician (1829–1897)

John Mercer Langston was an American abolitionist, attorney, educator, activist, diplomat, and politician. He was the founding dean of the law school at Howard University and helped create the department. He was the first president of what is now Virginia State University, a historically black college. He was elected a U.S. Representative from Virginia and wrote From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol; Or, the First and Only Negro Representative in Congress From the Old Dominion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feinberg School of Medicine</span> Medical school of Northwestern University, Illinois, US

The Feinberg School of Medicine is the medical school of Northwestern University and is located in the Streeterville neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1859, Feinberg offers a full-time Doctor of Medicine degree program, multiple dual degree programs, graduate medical education, and continuing medical education.

Raleigh Kirby Godsey, better known as R. Kirby Godsey, served as the seventeenth president of Mercer University, an independent, coeducational, private university, located in the U.S. state of Georgia, from July 1, 1979 to June 30, 2006, longer than any of his predecessors. Godsey is now university chancellor, professor, and special advisor to his successor, William D. Underwood.

Gary A. Olson is an American scholar of rhetoric and culture, a literary biographer, and president of Daemen University. He has served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Idaho State University, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Illinois State University, and chief academic officer at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Forest College</span> Private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois, U.S.

Lake Forest College is a private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois. Founded in 1857 as Lind University by a group of Presbyterian ministers, the college has been coeducational since 1876 and an undergraduate-focused liberal arts institution since 1903. Lake Forest enrolls approximately 1,500 students representing 43 states and 80 countries. Lake Forest offers 32 undergraduate major and minor programs in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, and features programs of study in pre-law, pre-medicine, communication, business, finance, and computer science. Most students live on the college's wooded 107-acre campus located a half-mile from the Lake Michigan shore, however, the population of commuting students has increased in the past few years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tuve Hasselquist</span> Swedish American Lutheran minister (1816–1891)

Tuve Nilsson Hasselquist was a Swedish American Lutheran minister and church leader. He was the second president of Augustana College, serving from 1863 until his death in 1891.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morton O. Schapiro</span> American economist

Morton Owen Schapiro is an American economist who served as the 16th president of Northwestern University from 2009 to 2022.

Susan Georgia Nugent was the 20th president of Illinois Wesleyan University. She was president of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio from 2003 to 2013, and interim president of the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio for the 2015-16 academic year. She was succeeded at Kenyon by Sean M. Decatur, former dean of Arts and Sciences at Oberlin College, and at Wooster by Sarah Bolton, former dean of Williams College. In November of 2019, Nugent became the first woman to serve as President of Illinois Wesleyan University. On April 10th it was announced that Sheahon Zenger would succeed her role as president in the 24-25 school year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Swedes in Chicago</span> Ethnic group

Swedes constitute a considerable ethnic group in Chicago, where roughly 15,000 people in the city claiming Swedish ancestry. Today the majority of Chicagoland Swedes live outside of the city, with over 140,000 residents of Swedish ancestry in the Chicago metropolitan area.

References

  1. "Library of Congress Name Authority File: Anita Gustafson, 1961". Library of Congress . Archived from the original on June 29, 2023. Retrieved June 29, 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Dr. Anita Olson Gustafson Named Dean of Mercer University's College of Liberal Arts". Middle Georgia CEO. March 25, 2015. Archived from the original on August 1, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 "Dr. Anita Olson Gustafson". Mercer University . Archived from the original on March 29, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  4. 1 2 "Anita Olson Gustafson, Dissertation Fellow". The Alumnae of Northwestern University. Northwestern University. Archived from the original on August 19, 2022. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  5. "Anita Olson Gustafson, Ph.D., named 20th president of Presbyterian College". Presbyterian College . June 27, 2023. Archived from the original on July 1, 2023. Retrieved June 28, 2023.
  6. "Presbyterian College to celebrate inauguration of 20th president, Dr. Anita Gustafson". GoLaurens.com. April 16, 2024. Retrieved April 18, 2024.
  7. Gustafson, Anita (December 14, 2018). Swedish Chicago: The Shaping of an Immigrant Community, 1880–1920. DeKalb, Illinois: Northern Illinois University Press. ISBN   978-0-87580-791-1. Archived from the original on August 1, 2023. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
  8. Clayton, John (June 28, 2023). "PC hires former professor, administrator as next president". Laurens County Advertiser . Archived from the original on July 29, 2023. Retrieved July 28, 2023.