Philadelphia, PA — Moore College of Art & Design (Moore) has named Cathy Young, Executive Director and Senior Vice President of Boston Conservatory at Berklee, its next president. Young will succeed current president Cecelia Fitzgibbon upon her retirement, effective July 1, 2022.
Young was unanimously confirmed by Moore's Board of Trustees following a comprehensive national search led by a 13-member, Board-appointed search committee, which was supported by executive search firm Isaacson Miller.
"On behalf of the Board of Trustees, we are delighted to appoint Cathy Young as the next president of Moore College of Art & Design," said Frances Graham, Chair of the Board of Trustees and a Moore alumna. "Ms. Young brings a wealth of experience to this role that we believe will inspire our students, faculty and staff."
Read more about Cathy Young's appointment in an exclusive article at the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Young's career as a choreographer, entrepreneur, arts educator and academic leader has shaped her approach to higher education leadership, which emphasizes community, collaboration, diversity and innovation as core values. As executive director of the Boston Conservatory, she successfully led the organization through its highly complex merger with the larger Berklee institution in 2017, engaging the full community in a two-year strategic planning process for the school that helped the Boston Conservatory meet its most immediate, student-centered goals: increasing access; enriching the student experience; supporting student success; and preparing students for sustainable, lifelong careers.
Under Young's leadership, Boston Conservatory has made significant progress toward these goals, including sustained enrollment growth; strong philanthropic momentum that enables vital scholarship support for students; an increasingly diverse student, faculty, and staff population; and academic innovation, including the launch of a three-year degree program in commercial dance, a foundational technology curriculum for all first-year students, and the development of online courses in dance, music, and theater.
Diversity and inclusion have been a central focus for Young throughout her career. As executive director of Boston Conservatory, she implemented numerous initiatives, including coordinated enrollment and hiring strategies to increase student, faculty and staff diversity; investment of philanthropic funds to support scholarships, faculty development, and curricular change; and the formation of student and faculty advisory councils.
Arthur R. Block, Chair of Moore's Board of Managers, supported Graham's comments, saying, "Cathy Young is the right person to steward Moore after a successful decade of leadership by Cecelia Fitzgibbon. We have great confidence in her to expand Moore’s reach and to lead the College in developing the next generation of artists and leaders."
"I am honored and humbled to be elected by the Board as the next president of Moore College of Art & Design, and deeply inspired by the opportunity to lead the College through the next phase of its growth and evolution, while nurturing and honoring its unmatched legacy, diverse community, and most importantly, the unique education that Moore provides for women and nonbinary students in art and design," said Young. "I look forward to building upon the incredible work of President Cecelia Fitzgibbon, and to collaborating with my new colleagues and Moore's creative community, to educate and inspire leaders of the future."
Young joins Moore at a time of great opportunity for the College as it begins to transition from the 10-year leadership of Cecelia Fitzgibbon. Under Fitzgibbon's leadership, the College more than tripled its endowment from $12 to $40 million, retired its long-term debt, and completed numerous capital projects to improve the physical space of the campus. In addition to a host of other achievements, Fitzgibbon launched new undergraduate and graduate academic programs; engaged Moore's campus community in a range of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives; oversaw a College-wide rebrand; and worked closely with Board leadership to revise the College's admissions policy, to be inclusive of nonbinary and gender-nonconforming undergraduate students. In addition, she stewarded the success of ImagineMoore, a three-year capital campaign that raised $17.5 million to increase the College's resources for scholarships, to build internal capacity and to conduct major projects.
"Ms. Young reflects Moore's commitment to fostering an environment that leverages the power of education to develop artists who are prepared to make an impact on the world through career success," said Fitzgibbon. "Her robust leadership experience, coupled with her passion for the arts and commitment to diversity, ensure that she will be an outstanding, future-focused leader for the Moore community during this exciting new chapter in our institution’s storied history."
To learn more about Cathy Young, President-Elect of Moore College of Art & Design, please visit the link below.
For press inquiries:
Margaret Kane, Signature 57
Stephanie Fanelli, Signature 57
stephanie.g.fanelli@gmail.com | 484.213.5968
Nicole Steinberg,
nsteinberg@moore.edu | 215.965.8561
Photo: Kelly Davidson.
