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MARQUETTE -- Brock Tessman, who grew up in downstate Plymouth, will become the 17th president of Northern Michigan University effective Feb. 1.
The NMU Board of Trustees on Thursday unanimously selected Tessman as the new president.
Tessman has served as deputy commissioner of higher education for the Montana University System since 2018, and has previous experience as a faculty member and campus leader.
Tessman was among four finalists invited to campus recently by the NMU Presidential Search Advisory Committee. All participated in forums with faculty, staff, student and community/alumni groups. They were also interviewed by trustees Sept. 26.
NMU Board Chair Steve Young indicated that after a rigorous interview and community engagement process, Tessman rose to the top as the clear choice for the next NMU president.
"This was not an easy decision, and there was a lot of discussion and research that went into this decision," Young said.
Tessman's salary will be $450,000.
"We wanted to be competitive, and we think we were," Young said.
Trustee Lisa Fittante said that after the candidate interviews, Tessman was her top choice.
What she included in her notes about Tessman, she noted, were his enthusiasm about the Marquette community, an innovative agenda, great energy, honesty and transparency, being in touch with inclusion and mental health and wellness, and other traits.
"There's more that I wrote, but that should give you an idea of why Dr. Tessman shines ..." Fittante said.
In a Thursday Zoom interview, Tessman said, "The honor to join Northern Michigan University, to join the community in Marquette and really become part of that community as quickly as possible is my No. 1 priority."
He touched on his future role as a university president.
"The president is really more of an architect than anything else," Tessman said. "NMU is in a fantastic place in so many ways, and really, it's about building an architecture for the existing excellence to be more fully realized and enhanced in certain ways, to kind of unleash the potential that I've learned a lot about during the interview process."
Tessman also addressed NMU's enrollment, whose total traditional headcount is down 3.4% to 6,970 this year. He said the proper approach to enrollment is focusing on the means to an end, and that involves retention and completion.
"Northern is a leader in the state and the region in terms of your efforts around retention," Tessman said. "Our efforts moving forward will be even more squarely focused on supporting the students we do have so that they stick around."
In his role with the Montana University System, Tessman has been responsible for driving success across Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Research and Economic Development, according to NMU. He has led efforts to expand college access, helping to substantially narrow opportunity and achievement gaps for low-income, first-generation and Indigenous students.
Tessman also has overseen the design and launch of the Montana 10 Student Success Initiative, which employs targeted financial aid, student incentives, comprehensive advising, mental health and academic momentum strategies. The effort has increased retention rates by 24% and more than doubled on-time completion rates for program participants.
Tessman leads the $345 million MUS research enterprise and is responsible for statewide development of new accelerated degree programs, business and industry partnerships, rapid workforce training programs, public-private ventures, and career and technical education operations. He is also the statewide director for Montana's community colleges and has coordinated the systemwide COVID-19 response and planning as chair of the Healthy MUS Task Force.
Before his current position, Tessman was a professor of political science and dean of the Davidson Honors College at the University of Montana in Missoula. As dean, he expanded private giving and community partnerships, increased enrollment, added new facilities and revised the honors curriculum to include the addition of a groundbreaking climate change studies program. He began his academic career at the University of Georgia. He earned tenure in the School of Public and International Affairs for his research and teaching on national security, foreign policy and the relationship between environmental conditions, risk tolerance and leadership decision-making.
Tessman graduated with honors from Brown University with a bachelor's degree in international relations and received both his master's in international relations and doctorate in political science from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He and his wife, Kristin, are parents to daughters Frances and Leona. Tessman is an avid trail runner, board game enthusiast and lifelong Detroit Lions fan, NMU stated.
He will succeed Kerri Schuiling, who agreed to serve as NMU's president from last October until a national search for new leadership could be completed. She transitioned from her previous role as provost and vice president for academic affairs.
The other finalists interviewed on campus recently were Debra S. Larson, Ph.D., provost and vice president of academic affairs at California State University, Chico; Meera Komarraju, Ph.D., provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Southern Illinois University Carbondale; and Mike Godard, Ph.D., provost at Southeast Missouri State University.