Bates College announces senior leadership transitions

Leigh Weisenburger, who has led the Bates admission and financial aid program since 2012, will become vice president for institutional affairs and secretary to the Board of Trustees, effective July 1, President Garry W. Jenkins announced today.

Weisenburger succeeds Michael Hussey, a member of the senior leadership team at Bates College since 2012, who has decided to step down to consider new professional opportunities. In the meantime, he will transition to the role of senior advisor to the president.

“Leigh is a deeply experienced and trusted leader who brings to this position an extraordinary understanding of Bates and its mission,” Jenkins said. “Her strategic acumen, institutional knowledge, and collaborative spirit will serve the board, this leadership team, and the college as a whole in vital ways.”

Weisenburger joined Bates in 2004 as an assistant dean of admission, became dean of admission and financial aid in 2012, and was promoted to her current role, vice president for enrollment and dean of admission and financial aid, in 2021. She is only the fifth dean of admission in Bates history and the first woman to serve in that role, and has led Bates through a period of remarkable success in enrollment and heightened national reputation.

Under her leadership, the college has seen record-breaking application numbers in three of the last four years, strengthened its global recruitment, and deepened its commitment to access and inclusion. Bates recently became part of the Questbridge network to broaden access for high-achieving low-income students, a partnership — and goal — Weisenburger was instrumental in helping to facilitate.

“Leigh has helped the college grow in terms of national reputation, the record-breaking number of students who are interested in joining our community, and in the absolutely essential work of making this college more accessible to all,” Jenkins said. “Her expertise and background will be enormously valuable as a key strategic partner in the President’s Office and to the Board of Trustees.”

Hussey joined Bates in 2012 from Harvard University, where he held administrative positions across multiple departments for a decade. At Bates, he served as chief of staff and secretary to the Board of Trustees until 2018, when he was named a vice president. He has overseen and supported a wide array of institutional projects on behalf of the Office of the President — serving as a trusted advisor and steward of institutional knowledge. In his role as secretary to the Board of Trustees, he is responsible for ensuring that the board conducts its work effectively, through both its formal meetings and its ongoing duties throughout the year. Hussey serves as the key point of contact for this dedicated group of professionals who commit significant time and energy to fulfilling their fiduciary oversight of the college.

“When Mike joined Bates, the board asked him to lead the development of new governance processes to help improve the board’s effectiveness,” said current board chair Greg Ehret ’91, P’23, who joined the board in 2016. “He did that and more, to the point where the group talks about this as a best-in-class governing body. The work Mike does is intricate and nuanced. It’s a big job that many on campus aren’t exposed to, but it is key to how the trustees work with and for Bates. He’s unflappable, gracious and such a brilliant advisor. The board is grateful to him, including for his willingness to stay on as an advisor during this time of transition, and will look forward to seeing a new chapter in his already impressive career.”

Hussey helped design and execute multiple leadership transitions on the board, between two board chairs, three vice chairs, and three secretaries. He played a role in identifying and onboarding every new Bates trustee for more than a decade.

Separate from his work with the board, Hussey has chaired or staffed eight leadership searches for Bates, including the search that brought President Garry W. Jenkins to the college. He has supported many large-scale college efforts, including strategic planning, presidential inaugurations, institutional accreditation, crisis management, emergency planning, and the COVID-19 response. He has also been the principal coordinator of Bates’ senior leadership team, including planning and chairing senior leadership weekly meetings and annual retreats. 

In addition, the Office of Institutional Research, Analysis & Planning, which provides data and analysis for institutional planning, reporting, decision-making, and assessment activities, reports to Hussey. 

“Mike has been an invaluable resource to the college for the past 13 years,” Jenkins said. “His steady hand, clear thinking, and remarkable ability to always see both the forest and the trees have been integral to many of our successes. I am so appreciative of the strong foundation he built for the work of our leadership team, our Board of Trustees, and our college as a whole.”

Weisenburger is a member of the National Association for College Admission Counseling and has taught for the New England division’s Rising Leaders Colloquium. A national leader in the test-optional movement who is often sought out for her expertise, Weisenburger has championed Bates’ longstanding belief — first affirmed by the faculty in 1984 — that standardized testing should never stand in the way of promising students. During the pandemic, when nearly 90 percent of colleges and universities went test-optional, Weisenburger coached other institutions on reading applications in a test optional environment. 

“That’s one of my proudest moments,” Weisenburger said. Other points of pride include building deeper engagement with faculty  through reinvigorating its Committee on Admission and Financial Aid, elevating Student Financial Services in recognition of its vital importance to the college, and strengthening the partnership between Admission and Athletics. Finally, she noted, she’s proud of how her team of 30 in admission and financial aid responded to complex changes brought by the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision banning the consideration of race as a factor in college admissions. 

Highly engaged in Lewiston and Maine, Weisenburger serves as treasurer on the YWCA of Central Maine’s board of directors and vice president and finance chair for the Maine Charter School Commission, and is a member of the Olympia Snowe Women’s Leadership Institute Leaders Network, the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital’s NICU Family Advisory Council, and the Chewonki Foundation’s Maine Coast Semester Advisory Committee. 

As Weisenburger prepares to move into this new role, she reflected on the connection between the work she’s done and what lies ahead. Currently serving on the college’s Strategic Planning Steering Committee, she sees the opportunity to take on the college’s mission on a broader scale. “There’s truly this thread from my work in admission and student financial services to where I will be landing,” she said. “Right after my college graduation, somehow, I knew enough to be drawn to the mission of Bates. Imagining this new role and the opportunities ahead, I see continued partnerships across campus and new ones beyond that, which will provide more chances to really lift and celebrate and actualize that Bates mission. I am drawn to this new role as somebody who is deeply relational and values that Bates is a deeply relational place.”

Weisenburger and Hussey have worked together as co-chairs of the Enrollment Planning and Strategy Committee and also co-chaired searches for openings on the senior leadership team. Hussey will work alongside Weisenburger this summer to ensure a seamless transition; in September, he will move to a half-time role. 

Plans for interim leadership in Admission and Student Financial Services and the search for the college’s next vice president for enrollment will be announced in the near future. The search is expected to start in the fall semester.