President Blattner

On July 1 a Cape Girardeau native will become the president of Caldwell College in New Jersey, a Catholic, coeducational, four-year liberal arts institution on a campus of 70 wooded acres 20 miles from New York City. Nancy Blattner will be the first layperson to head the college, which is celebrating the 70th anniversary of its founding by the Sisters of St. Dominic.

Blattner, who was born in Cape Girardeau and attended St. Mary Cathedral Grade School and Notre Dame Regional High School, is a graduate of Southeast Missouri State University with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in English. She received a doctorate in educational psychology from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.

After teaching part time at Southeast and Notre Dame for several years, Blattner became a full-time faculty member at Southeast. She attended the Harvard Management Development program, served an American Council on Education fellowship at Longwood University in Virginia and also served as interim associate provost at Longwood. In 2004 she became vice president and dean for academic affairs at Fontbonne University in St. Louis.

Blattner and her husband Tim, who has chaired Cape Girardeau's mural committee for several years, are in the process of moving to New Jersey. We wish them Godspeed.