College of the Atlantic, a small liberal arts college with an emphasis on environmental studies, has selected a former university official in Utah to be its next president.
Sylvia Torti, who served as the dean of Honors College at University of Utah for more than a decade and holds a Ph.D. from the same university, is expected to take on her new role as COA’s president on July 1.
COA made the announcement on its website.
Torti will be COA’s seventh president, taking over for Darron Collins, a COA graduate who has held the position since 2011. Collins is retiring from the post at the end of this academic year.
COA officials say Torti is “an accomplished writer, ecologist, and innovative academic leader with 15 years of experience in higher education.”
As dean of University of Utah’s liberal arts college from 2012 to 2023, Torti tripled the diversity of the student body and increased the number of out-of-state students, according to COA. She has a 30-year record of publication, including multiple scientific research papers, opinion pieces, two novels, and multiple short stories and essays.
Prior to serving as college dean, Torti was the director of the university’s Bonderman Field Station in eastern Utah. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Earlham College in Indiana and her Ph.D. from the University of Utah’s School of Biological Sciences. Her latest novel, Cages, was published by Schaffner Press in 2017.
Beth Gardiner, chair of COA’s board of trustees, said Torti has a “proven track record” of leading in experiential and interdisciplinary learning, and of promoting shared governance.
“Dr. Torti fully understands the moment we are in, the important role that COA has in the world of higher education, and how vital it is to make sure that diversity, equity, and inclusion are central to how we evolve as a college at this time,” Gardiner said. “She has a firm grasp of the importance of attracting and retaining diverse students and faculty, and expanding the types of classes offered so that we can better reflect the world around us.”
Torti was selected from an initial pool of 81 candidates for the job, from both inside and outside academia, COA officials said.
“As an exceptional leader and a systems thinker, Dr. Torti will excel at both the internal work of management and mission refinement and the external work of fundraising and public-facing leadership,” said Cynthia Baker, a COA trustee who chaired the search committee.
Torti’s partner, Scott Woolsey, will join her in Bar Harbor. Woolsey, whose family has enjoyed a lakeside property near Bethel, Maine since he was a child, has an extensive background in food systems and organic farming in New England, COA officials said.