Berry College inaugurated the ninth president, Dr. Sandeep Mazumder

Berry College inaugurated the ninth president, Dr. Sandeep Mazumder, on April 10 during a formal installation ceremony in the Cage Center Arena.

The ceremony was attended by students, faculty and members of the community. The Berry Singers performed “This River” by Uzee Brown, alongside Artist-in-Residence Indra Thomas. Afterwards, Mazumder was presented with the Berry College Presidential Medallion and invited to give an inaugural address.

“As we stand here at this moment in Berry’s story, we’re reminded that we do not inherit something completed; we inherit a calling, a challenge to which we rise each day,” Mazumder said. “We seek solutions, wrestle with ideas, shape our character, practice our craft, pursue clarity and truth, lead with integrity, serve with humility and dream boldly about what Berry can become for the next generation. It’s a torch passed to us, a symbol of what has come before and what will endure.”

At the inauguration, there were remarks from various areas of the college, including Staff Advisory Committee Chair Calli O’Neal, Faculty Assembly Officer Dr. Johnathan Parker, Student Government Association President Anna Yard, Alumni Council President Meredith Roberts, President Emeritus Dr. Stephen Briggs and Director of Graduate Studies at John Hopkins University Dr. Laurence Ball.

Following the ceremony, Berry hosted a Community Celebration Reception on the lawn. The two-day celebration brought together faculty, staff, students, trustees and delegates from peer institutions to formally invest in the college’s new leader and honor Berry’s founding mission.

Mazumder came to Berry from Baylor University, where he served as the William E. Crenshaw Endowed Dean of the Hankamer School of Business, supporting roughly 4,500 students and leading fundraising efforts that exceeded $107 million.

A scholar of macroeconomics and monetary economics, he has authored more than 30 journal articles in publications including the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity and the Journal of Money, Credit and Banking. In 2022, he co-authored the textbook “Money, Banking, and Financial Markets: A Modern Introduction to Macroeconomics.”

Mazumder holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in economics from Cambridge University and a master’s degree and doctorate in economics from Johns Hopkins University. He and his wife, Gretchen, have three children.

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