Diana L. Rogers-Adkinson, Ph.D., has been selected by the MCLA Board of Trustees to serve as the college's next president, pending approval by the state Board of Higher Education.

NORTH ADAMS — Diana L. Rogers-Adkinson has been selected as the next president of the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

The MCLA Board of Trustees voted 8-2 on Thursday evening to appoint Rogers-Adkinson, one of four finalists to succeed outgoing President James Birge in July. The appointment still needs approval by the state Department of Higher Education.

Rogers-Adkinson, who formerly served on MCLA’s accreditation committee, is currently a chief academic officer for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.

“She truly values her own liberal arts education,” Board Chair Buffy Lord said. “What she articulated well was that the liberal arts is about teaching you to be well-rounded and learning to learn. All of those serve you in whatever profession you end up in.”

Lord said she was going to miss working with Birge, though she was looking forward to “fresh eyes that can look at the college’s problems or challenges.”

Salary and contract details have yet to be negotiated. The role is projected to pay between $300,000 and $350,000, with housing and benefits provided.

Birge is earning $328,114 this year, according to payroll records through the state comptroller’s office.

Birge, the public college’s 12th president, announced his plans for retirement in September after a decade at MCLA. He will close out his 42-year academic career June 30.

He cited “collaborative success” during his tenure, highlighting new health majors including nursing and radiologic technology, which he announced Thursday are doubled for the upcoming year. He also touted expanding early college and dual enrollment programs, the return and addition of athletics, the groundbreaking of the Campagna Kleefeld Center for Creativity in the Arts, growth of reserve funds to $26 million and leading its Pathways fundraising campaign — which Birge announced Thursday reached its $30 million goal.

MCLA President James Birge announced his plans last September to retire at the end of June after a decade at the college.

“Even better news is that that number has already moved up; I think by June we’ll be flirting with $34 million,” he said. Those funds will be used to fund student scholarships, athletics and more.

The college worked with search firm WittKieffer and over the past few months conducted and reviewed a national search of candidates.

After receiving over 100 applications, the search committee narrowed candidates down to Rogers-Adkinson, David Jenemann, Michael Middleton and Sherri Givens Mylott.

The majority of trustees emphasized the breadth of Rogers-Adkinson’s experience, her communication style with students and community and her creation of an enrollment playbook as part of her application. She was also recommended by the state Department of Higher Education.

The dissenters were trustee Ben Downing student trustee Allie Bayer, who both cast votes for Jenemann.

Now, Rogers-Adkinson will be tasked with guiding the college’s strategic plan, boosting revenue and championing liberal arts education, all while staring down a decade of enrollment decline — including a 45 percent drop from 2015 to 2024.

“She understands the role of leadership … at the end of the day, she knew where to keep things front and center and that was with our students,” said trustee Yvonne Spicer. “I’m also confident as a former politician that [she knows how to] engage not only on campus, but I think she will be a strong advocate on Beacon Hill and in North Adams. I found her engaging, a great listener and she had a great sense of humor.”

Trustee David Halbert echoed similar remarks.

“I think the comfort she had from the mail room to the war room to everything in between," he said, "is critical to an institution.”

Rogers-Adkinson currently serves as senior vice chancellor for academic and student affairs and chief academic officer for the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, where she provides system-level leadership for 10 universities serving approximately 80,000 students, according to an MCLA press release. A tenured professor and published scholar, she holds a Ph.D. from Kent State University.

She was on MCLA’s accreditation committee a few years ago and touted experience working in a similar state college system in Pennsylvania during a recent community interview session.

Rogers-Adkinson was attracted to the role because of the “intimate” size of MCLA and its liberal arts focus, something she saw even years back.

“I saw a spirit of collaboration and in terms of how the campus worked,” which she called important because “we only succeed when student and academic affairs are working together.”

In that same session, she said liberal arts’ “intense exploration of different things” complemented the way incoming college students learn."

“Gen Alpha is soon coming to college and they learn differently than generations before,” she said. “They think about integrated learning. They don’t see knowledge the same way some of us may have been taught. They recognize nobody stays in the same career like they used to."

If appointed, she said she would reach out to Berkshire Community College, saying it’s a “great time to build new relationships, [and] how are we making sure we have good pipelines with them,” in terms of connecting nontraditional college students through BCC to MCLA.

Said she would be “infiltrating student spaces” and asking herself, "How do you make yourself someone they can talk to?”

“I’ve always been hands-on,” she said. “When thinking about becoming president, the only way to stay that hands-on is to go smaller. I’m not just a person who sits in the building over there and nobody sees.”