Ball State Reaches Into Kentucky For Next President

Mearns was introduced to Ball State in January.

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The Ball State University Board of Trustees has named Geoffrey Mearns the school’s 17th president. Mearns currently serves as president of Northern Kentucky University, a position he accepted in 2012, and was provost and senior vice president at Cleveland State University. A 15-year veteran attorney, he holds degrees from Yale University and the University of Virginia and previously served as a law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in Louisville.

During his tenure at NKU, he helped shepherd a new five-year plan to take the school into its 50th anniversary, which will be next year. Under his leadership in 2014, NKU landed a $97 million state investment for an on-campus health innovation center. Last year, Mearns helped push for a more than $5 million increase in annual state funding.

He succeeds Acting President Terry King, who has served in the position since Paul Ferguson left a year ago. Mearns says his contract will begin in August.