Pitt names new president for Bradford-Titusville campuses

The University of Pittsburgh went halfway around the world to find a new president for its Bradford and Titusville campuses.

Pitt officials Monday announced Catherine Koverola, inaugural provost and senior advisor at the African Leadership University in Mauritius, Africa has been named president of its Bradford and Titusville campuses, effective June 1, 2019.

The appointment caps a lengthy search for a replacement for Livingston Alexander who retired June 30. Pitt officials reopened their search last spring after rejecting six candidates for the top post at the northern Pennsylvania campuses that boast a combined enrollment of about 1,600 students.

Koverola’s appointment comes as Pitt’s Titusville campus, which has struggled with declining enrollment, transitions to a two-year campus and job training hub.

In her post in the island nation of Mauritius, located in the Indiana Ocean off the southeast coast of Africa, Koverola established a university system to serve students on a mass scale across the African continent. She previously held posts at universities in Alaska, Seattle and Massachusetts.

“Catherine’s exceptional experience in the needs of students and rural communities, as well as relationship building and innovation within those spaces, is as impressive as it is substantive. From start to finish, she possesses the leadership qualities that can both continue the successes of the campuses at Bradford and Titusville and propel them forward in a time of transformation,” Pitt Vice Chancellor and Provost Ann E. Cudd said announcing the appointment.

Koverola was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Cambridge College, dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences at Lesley University and dean of psychology and interim vice president of academic affairs at Antioch University in Seattle. She also was director of PhD and MA psychology programs, director of the Alaska Rural Health Training Academy and chair of the department of psychology at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

She earned a doctorate in clinical psychology and a master’s degree in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary and holds a master’s degree in clinical child psychology from the University of Western Ontario and bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of British Columbia.