Dear members of the Society for Classical Studies:
I’m writing to provide information on an important transition in the SCS main office. Our Executive Director of the past seven years, Helen Cullyer, is stepping down from this role and her last day in the office is this Friday, December 1. She alerted the Board of Directors late last summer that she planned to step down, and over the past few months I as President and other members of the Board of Directors have been working to design and manage this significant transition in the life of our Society. We are in the process of appointing an interim Executive Director to begin as soon as possible, and have also constituted a search committee to undertake the longer process of identifying and appointing a permanent successor to Helen.
We are negotiating with an interim Executive Director candidate who has a background in higher education administration including finance, understands how academic organizations work, and has deep experience in planning and executing large-scale events. This person now works as a private consultant and takes on interim positions, like ours, to help organizations manage executive transitions. This candidate’s combination of experience and expertise in money matters, in managing offices, and in overseeing large events made us feel that s/he was just the person to help us navigate the upcoming Chicago meeting successfully and to handle other aspects of the Society’s business until we can bring a permanent successor to Helen on board. We are not yet in a position to release this person’s name, as we have not finalized the terms of the appointment. Also, the hire must be made through the human resources operation of New York University, where our office is based. This also means there may be a gap between Helen’s last day and this person entering the position, during which the society will lack an acting Executive Director. We hope and expect that any such gap will be brief, a matter of a few days. I am extraordinarily grateful to the members of the Board of Directors who worked with me in the interview and selection process that yielded this candidate for our interim position.
As you all know, Helen Cullyer has been a vital member of our professional community throughout her time as Executive Director. All of us who have worked closely with her, and many members who have had more occasional interactions, appreciate her dedication to the SCS and to the profession as a whole, her quick responsiveness to all matters that come before us, and the sympathetic ear that she has leant to many members when they were dealing with professional and personal challenges. The Society has experienced considerable change and not a little turmoil during her period as Executive Director, particularly via emergencies that have come up in and around the annual meeting, which her hard work and professionalism have enabled us to navigate. Though she is uncomfortable with being praised, we cannot pass up this opportunity to thank her for her service.
I am also pleased to announce that a committee has been constituted to search for our next permanent Executive Director. This committee consists of myself as President, Alison Keith as incoming President, Emily Greenwood, Angelo Mercado, Victoria Pagán, and Young Kim, to all of whom I am extremely grateful as this is significant service. This committee is fairly recently constituted and has not really gotten to work yet, but its initial tasks will be to update the position description for the Executive Director, create a position posting, and devise a strategy for advertising it. It will be reaching out to various constituencies for input about what we should be looking for in our next Executive Director, and welcomes thoughts and suggestions from all members. Further information will be coming in the next few weeks about this committee, its process, its timeline, and how to contact it.
Best wishes to all as we approach the ends of our semesters, the holiday season, and of course the Chicago meeting coming up, where I hope to see many of you.
Matthew Roller
SCS President, 2023
