(Iowa Capital Dispatch) – Simpson College has secured an interim president ahead of the next academic year, the second the Indianola university has seen since the death of its president this spring. The private college announced in a news release Tuesday it has selected Susan Stuebner, a former university president who has held various leadership roles at multiple universities, to serve as interim president for the 2025-2026 academic year.

Simpson College launched a national search for an interim leader in May with the goal of having someone in place for the fall, and Stuebner will start in her role July 28. While her term as interim president is only set for the next academic year, acting board of trustees chair Terry Lillis said she could still earn the full presidency. The board will conduct a review of her service later in the year, after which “mutual interest” in seeing her stay in the role will be determined.

(Photo courtesy of Simpson College)

Before coming to Simpson, Stuebner served as president of Colby-Sawyer College in New Hampshire for eight years before stepping down to advise the college’s interim president. She’s also served in leadership positions at Allegheny College and Lycoming College, both in Pennsylvania.

With Stuebner coming in to lead Simpson College, acting president Terry Handley will step back into his role as chair of the college’s board of trustees, according to the release. Handley was chosen by the board to take on temporary leadership of the college after its president, Jay Byers, was found dead in the president’s residence on campus in April.

“This has been an extraordinarily difficult time for Simpson College,” Handley said in the release. “But the collective strength and resiliency demonstrated by our community has been nothing short of remarkable. We are once again in good hands with the coming leadership of Interim President Stuebner.”