Three institutional chief executive officers have been selected to serve four-year terms on the Division III Presidents Council.

One of the CEOs, Miriam "Mim" Pride of Blackburn College, was appointed to an immediate vacancy and will begin service on the Council during its meeting at the 2004 Convention in Nashville. Pride then will serve a full term ending in January 2008, along with new members David L. Beckley of Rust College and Peggy R. Williams of Ithaca College, whose service will begin with the Council's April 2004 meeting.

Following are biographical sketches of the new Presidents Council members.

Beckley

Beckley became the 11th president of Rust College in 1993 after serving for six years as president at Wiley College.

He previously has served the Association as a member of the NCAA Presidents Commission and then as a member of the newly formed Division III Presidents Council after restructuring of the NCAA in 1997.

A graduate of Rust, Beckley became the third alumnus to serve his alma mater as president. He began his administrative career in higher education at the college, serving in the positions of assistant business manager, director of public relations and alumni affairs, interim provost and director of institutional advancement.

He has served on the board of directors of several organizations, including his current service as a director of the Teacher Education Accreditation Council. He also has served the United Negro College Fund and was elected to the University Senate of the United Methodist Church, where he chairs the Black College Commission.

Beckley earned a bachelor's degree in social science at Rust and a master's degree and doctorate in higher education administration at the University of Mississippi.

Pride

Pride became Blackburn's 20th president and first woman CEO in 1991, and successfully has increased faculty and staff and expanded academic programs at the college, one of only seven work-study institutions in the United States.

The daughter of missionaries to China, she also has held positions at Berea College, including director of campus activities. She also served for a period of time as an eligibility worker for the Kentucky Department of Human Resources.

Pride currently is a member of the Governor's Commission on the Status of Women in Illinois. She recently was honored for her efforts on behalf of private higher education with an honorary doctorate from Alma College.

She earned a bachelor's degree in English and secondary education at the College of Wooster and a master of business administration degree at the University of Kentucky.

Williams

Williams assumed the presidency at Ithaca in 1997, becoming the institution's seventh CEO and first woman president. She previously served for eight years as president at Lyndon State College.

She also has served at Trinity College (Vermont) as associate academic dean, chair of the business and economics department, and associate professor. In addition, she has held various positions within the Vermont State Colleges system, and also once served as a social worker at a Vermont hospital and a county social services agency in New York.

She has been active in the American Council on Education, serving on its board of directors and more recently on its Commission on Women. The organization twice has honored Williams, first by presenting her with its Jackie M. Gribbons Leadership Award in 1984, and then by naming in her honor an award that recognizes the accomplishments of young female professionals in higher education.

A dual citizen of the United States and Canada, Williams earned a bachelor of arts degree in psychology at St. Michael's College of the University of Toronto. She also holds a master of education degree from the University of Vermont and a doctorate in administration, planning and social policy from Harvard University.