Patricia P. Cormier, president of Longwood College, has been elected chair of the Division II Presidents Council. She will replace Gladys Styles Johnston, chancellor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, at the conclusion of the 2001 Convention in Orlando.

Appointed to the Presidents Council in 1998,

Cormier recently has served as the Council liaison to the Division II Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. She also chairs the Convention Planning Project Team.

Cormier has been president of Longwood College since 1996. She has been involved in higher education for 35 years and has served in leadership positions on the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows Board and the American Association of Higher Education.

Cormier served three years as chief academic officer at Winthrop University beginning in 1993. Before that, she spent 12 years at the University of Pennsylvania, where she concluded her tenure as an associate professor and associate dean of academic affairs. She also served as vice-president and dean of the college at Wilson College from 1984-88.

Her honors include selection as one of 30 fellows nationwide to participate in the ACE fellowship program in academic administration in 1982-83 and selection as a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

She serves on the 77-member Commission on Colleges, the accrediting association for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. She also has published two highly regarded books in her field: "Community Oral Health: A Systems Approach" and "Educating the Dentists of the Future."

Cormier has her master's and doctorate degrees in education from the University of Virginia. She also has a bachelor's degree from Boston University.