Story contributions courtesy of Denison University, DePauw University, and Wittenberg University.

Wittenberg University President Dr. Michael L. Frandsen has been named the president of the North Coast Athletic Conference and DePauw University President Dr. Lori S. White, has been selected to serve as the vice president for the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years.

Frandsen, who served as the NCAC's vice president since July 1, 2022, succeeds Denison University President Dr. Adam S. Weinberg, as the president of the NCAC. Weinberg will serve a two-year term as the NCAC Immediate Past President on the Executive Committee.

President Frandsen
Mike Frandsen was unanimously elected the 15th president of Wittenberg University on Feb. 10, 2017. His tenure officially began July 1, 2017.

Frandsen arrived at Wittenberg from Oberlin College where he served as vice president for finance and administration. In addition to overseeing finance and accounting, facilities, human resources, information technology, and investments at Oberlin, Frandsen served on the strategic planning steering committee and the enrollment management team. During his tenure, Oberlin undertook several major construction projects, including the Peter B. Lewis Gateway Center, a mixed-use facility that will receive LEED Platinum certification.

Prior to joining Oberlin in 2014, Frandsen spent 10 years at Albion College in Michigan, where he held four different roles. Initially a faculty member in economics and management, he went on to serve as director of the Gerstacker Institute for Business and Management, an honors business program. In 2009, he joined the senior leadership team as vice president for finance and administration. For his final year at Albion, 2013-14, Frandsen was interim president.

Before joining Albion, Frandsen spent five years at Juniata College in Pennsylvania, where he served as a faculty member in the accounting, business and economics department, as well as in the information technology department. Frandsen also taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Colorado College, St. Edward's (Texas) University, and his alma mater, The Pennsylvania State University.

Prior to his career in higher education, Frandsen worked in corporate finance for global companies in the telecommunication, chemical and electronics industries. Although his posts were always domestic, he worked for companies based in Canada, Germany and France, as well as the United States, in his more than 10 years in the corporate world.

Additionally, Frandsen coached swimmers, from novice to Olympic Trials qualifiers, at clubs in Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Colorado before pursuing his corporate career. He continued to coach part-time occasionally prior to his work in higher education.

Frandsen earned his Ph.D. in management, with an emphasis on strategic management, from the University of Texas at Austin. His dissertation examined how stock prices respond to announcements about new chief executives. He also holds an M.B.A. and B.S. in finance, both from The Pennsylvania State University.

President White
Lori White was appointed the 21st president of DePauw University on March 4, 2020, and began her term on July 1, 2020. Before her arrival in Greencastle, she was the vice chancellor for student affairs and a professor of practice at Washington University in St. Louis. At DePauw, she also holds the rank of professor of education. She is the first woman and the first person of color to serve as DePauw's president.

White has spent 40 years working in higher education. Prior to her arrival at Washington University she served as the vice president for student affairs and clinical professor of education at Southern Methodist University, and also has worked at the University of Southern California; Stanford, Georgetown and San Diego State universities; and the University of California, Irvine.

Active nationally in several higher education organizations, White has served on the Board of Directors for the Association for Sustainability in Higher Education), and for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators Foundation (Chair, 2016-2017); in 2009 she was named a Pillar of the Profession by NASPA.  She currently serves on the Association of Governing Board's Council of Presidents and is a member of the Bipartisan Policy Center's Academic Leaders Task Force on Campus Free Expression.  White is one of five founding college Presidents of the Liberal Arts Colleges Racial Equity Leadership Alliance (LACRELA). 

White's areas of emphasis in research and teaching include the student experience in higher education and the preparation and mentorship of new, mid-level and aspiring senior student  affairs professionals. She is the author of a number of articles and book chapters and has presented widely at professional meetings. Her most recent publications appear in a co-edited volume titled "Transformational Encounters: Shaping Diverse College and University Leaders" and another titled "Keep Calm and Call the Dean of Students: A Guide to Understanding the Many Facets of the Dean of Students Role."

Born and raised in San Francisco, White earned her undergraduate degree in psychology and English from the University of California, Berkeley, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in education administration and policy analysis, with emphasis in higher education. She also participated in Harvard University's Management and Leadership in Education  Program.

President Weinberg
Adam Weinberg became the 20th president of Denison University in 2013. He has focused on positioning Denison in ways that address the major issues facing higher education in the 21st century, including affordability, career readiness, internationalization, civic education, learning outcomes, and social inclusion.

Under Weinberg's leadership, Denison has expanded the curriculum with a new generation of academic programs, global programs, and a deepening of the arts, including the construction of the Michael D. Eisner Center for the Performing Arts. Denison's new programs in Global Commerce, Data Analytics, Financial Economics, Journalism, and Health, Exercise and Sports Studies are forging new pathways for the liberal arts.

A second major area of emphasis has been career exploration. Denison has launched the Austin E. Knowlton Center for Career Exploration, which is reinventing how liberal arts colleges prepare students for careers and professions. For this work, Weinberg was recognized by the National Association of Colleges and Employers for innovation with the inaugural 2017 Career Services Champion Award. He is heavily involved in national conversations about career preparation through his work with The Council on Competitiveness and The Columbus Partnership.

His intellectual roots are in the civic impacts of higher education in unlocking the potential of individuals and communities. He has brought this passion to Denison where work is underway to focus on residential halls as sites for civic learning, and the recently launched Red Frame Lab for design thinking. Underlying this work, Weinberg has focused Denison on a campus-wide effort to deepen mentorship, which he believes is the defining feature of transformative education.

Prior to coming to Denison, Weinberg served as president and CEO of World Learning, where he led education programs in more than 70 countries. He started his career at Colgate University (1995 through 2005), where he was a member of the sociology and anthropology department and also served as vice president and dean of the college.

A native of Texas, his passion for ice hockey took him to New England, where he attended Deerfield Academy and Bowdoin College. He studied at Cambridge University before earning his master's and doctoral degrees in sociology at Northwestern University. He has published widely.

Weinberg is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations. He has served on a variety of national and local boards, including The Talloires Network, InterAction, The Works, The Great Lakes College Association, The Ohio Foundation for Independent Colleges, and the Alliance for International Education and Cultural Exchange.

The NCAC
Founded in the spring of 1983, the North Coast Athletic Conference consists of nine academically selective colleges and universities - Denison University, DePauw University, Hiram College, Kenyon College, Oberlin College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Wabash College, Wittenberg University and the College of Wooster along with affiliate members Allegheny College, Earlham College, Transylvania University, and Washington & Jefferson College (field hockey). The conference's newest member, John Carroll University, begins play in the fall of 2025. The NCAC sponsors 23 championship sports, 11 for men and 12 for women.