Millikin President Jim Reynolds has decided to step away from his position as President to spend more time with his family in Maryland.
On July 1st, 2024, Millikin’s President Jim Reynolds announced his retirement.
After serving as Millikin University’s president for four years, Reynolds has decided to retire to spend more time with his family.
“Our oldest daughter and her husband have one child, our only grandson, and they told us this past June that through the miracle of in vitro fertilization, they’re having another baby,” Reynolds said. “It was their last embryo. And so I think to myself, I’m not going to get another chance to be a good grandfather.”
Reynolds has spent 35 years as either an administrator or a faculty member in higher education. It is hard to know when it is time to step away, but he knew when his time was up.
“My father always said to my brother and I that we’ll know when it’s time,” Reynolds said. “And I just have realized, for a lot of different reasons, that it’s time for me.”
In his time at Millikin, Reynolds has accomplished so much, and one of his favorite accomplishments has been helping others succeed.
“I’m not the kind of leader that necessarily puts things on the chalkboard or has an ‘I love me’ wall or anything like that,” Reynolds said. “For me, it’s what I can do to help people take down the barriers to their success. And I think that I’ve done a lot of that.”
Although he is leaving in June 2025, Reynolds believes Millikin is left in good hands.
“I know that I’m not always the smartest person in the room, and so hiring good people that augment the skills that I have is really important to me,” he said. “And if there is a legacy that I’ll leave for Millikin, it’s that I’ve hired a number of really good people that will still be here that are absolutely devoted to the work and have different leadership styles that I think match up with what Millikin might need in the future.”
Although he will not get to see Millikin continue to grow and change, he is happy with the time he has devoted.
“I won’t be here to see the success, but my goal has never been to be at the end result,” he said. “It is to make sure that when we start, we have a plan going forward, and ultimately it will come to fruition, and things will be much better for Millikin, and I feel good about where we’re at and what we’ve accomplished.”
But now the search for the new president has begun. A Presidential Search Committee (PSC) has been formed and is officially on the hunt for Millikin’s new president.
The PSC consists of Dr. Paris Barnes (Faculty Representative), Mary Black (Provost), Randy Blackburn (Trustee), Ronald Branch (Board Chair), Leonard Brinson Jr. (Trustee), Sheri Kaiser Eichelberger (Trustee), Kyler Griggs (Student Representative), Lori Kerans (Staff Representative), Case McGee (Trustee), Dr. Larry Osborne (Trustee), Dr. Jennifer Schroeder (Faculty Representative), and Dr. Kathy Gardner Thomforde (Board Vice-Chair).
In an email sent from Ronald Branch, Board of Trustees Chair, he details the process and progress they have made in the search for a president.
“The PSC reached a consensus that a national search is the best approach for selecting our next president,” Branch said in the email. “This search will welcome both external and internal candidates.”
After having firms recommended by PSC members and firms reach out to Millikin, the PSC picked their top three firms and had them present to the members.
“We are pleased to announce that we have selected AGB Search to lead the Millikin Presidential search,” Branch said.
AGB Search is a firm that helps universities find qualified individuals to fill leadership positions. AGB Search assisted former Millikin President Patrick White in finding a provost; they aided in appointing Jeffery P. Aper, who served as provost from 2014 to 2021.
