Theodore E. Long

Ted Long served as president of Elizabethtown College from 1996 to 2011 and since 2004 has been a trustee of Capital University, where he serves on the executive committee and chairs the student affairs committee. He has broad experience in the governance of independent colleges, especially in issues related to board-president relations, strategic planning, institutional transformation, board assessment, and board development.

At Elizabethtown, Ted has led a decade-long implementation of a broad institutional development strategy that has enhanced the board, the faculty, facilities, finances, fund-raising, and program diversity. Recently the college adopted a new strategic vision to highlight academic excellence and a number of signature attributes that distinguish the institution programmatically. The college has become increasingly recognized for a transformative, global program of education for purposeful life, civic engagement, and education for personal and social responsibility. The Elizabethtown board has also been recognized for its development of best practices in collegiate governance.

Previously, Ted served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Merrimack College, as chair of the department of sociology at Washington and Jefferson College, and as a faculty member at Hollins University and the George Washington University. He has also served as board chair for the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Pennsylvania, the Pennsylvania Campus Compact, and Brethren Colleges Abroad, and has served on numerous educational and civic boards. He has frequently chaired accreditation visiting teams in the New England and Middle States regions and is frequently engaged to lead strategic planning and board development processes for community and educational organizations.

As a scholar specializing in the sociology of religion and social theory, Ted has published articles on new religious movements, religious protest, religion and politics, social change, socialization theory, and religious conversion. He is co-editor of Religion and Religiosity in America, and he served as president and executive officer of the Association for the Sociology of Religion, a scholarly association. He is a frequent speaker at civic organizations and writes periodic op-ed pieces on higher education.

He is a graduate of Capital University (BA, sociology and philosophy), Duke University (MA, sociology) and the University of Virginia (PhD, sociology), and he also participated in Harvard’s Institute for Educational Management and its Seminar for New Presidents.