ELCA NEWS SERVICE February 13, 2009 Janet Morgan Riggs Named President of ELCA's Gettysburg College 09-043-FI CHICAGO (ELCA) -- On Feb. 6 the trustees of Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pa., appointed Dr. Janet Morgan Riggs as the college's 14th president. Riggs has served the college as interim president since March 2008 when Dr. Katherine Haley Will resigned. Gettysburg is one of 28 colleges and universities of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). "Since 1981 Gettysburg College and the local community have been my home. I am thrilled to be asked to serve my alma mater in this way," said Riggs, 53. "I want to thank members of this community who have been so supportive of me. Gettysburg College has just opened one door after another for me, and I am just so grateful for that," she said. "We are all very excited to make this appointment," said James M. Weaver, King of Prussia, Pa., chair of the Gettysburg College board of trustees. "Dr. Riggs has excelled in a number of key administrative appointments, most recently interim president at Gettysburg, and we know that she will move full steam ahead in building campus- wide support for her vision," Weaver said. "As an alumna who has also been a 20-year professor and a provost at Gettysburg, she deeply understands the lives of our students and faculty, who are the heart of our academic mission." Born in suburban Philadelphia, Riggs graduated in 1977 from Gettysburg College. She earned a master's degree and a doctorate in social psychology from Princeton University, Princeton, N.J. Riggs returned to Gettysburg in 1981 as an instructor in the psychology department; she became a professor and chair of the department. She served the college as executive assistant to the president 1991-1994 and as interim provost 1995-1996 and 2006- 2007 before being appointed provost in 2007. Riggs and her husband Ed, a teacher at Gettysburg Area Middle School, are the parents of three adult children. Founded in 1832, Gettysburg College is a four-year residential college of liberal arts and sciences. With a student body of approximately 2,500, it is located on a 200-acre campus adjacent to the Gettysburg National Military Park. -- -- -- The home page for Gettysburg College is at http://www.gettysburg.edu/ on the Web. For information contact: John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask] http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog