La Jerne Terry Cornish

Dr. La Jerne Terry Cornish is the 10th president of Ithaca College. She took office on March 7, 2022.

Prior to this appointment, Dr. Cornish served as interim president from August 2021 to March 2022, and as provost and executive vice president after joining IC as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs in July 2018.

During her tenure at Ithaca, and in addition to leading the college’s academic affairs division, Dr. Cornish served as the primary architect of Ithaca Forever, the college’s five-year strategic plan, along with Jason Freitag, associate professor in the Department of History. Cornish and Freitag worked with a 15-member steering committee composed of faculty, staff, students, and members of the Ithaca-area community. The plan was created during the 2018-19 academic year, and formally endorsed by the Ithaca College Board of Trustees in June 2019.