Presidential Search

The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art is conducting a search to identify the institution’s 14th president. This follows the decision of President Laura Sparks to bring her time at Cooper to a close, after leading the college for nearly eight years from January 2017 to September 2024. (You can read the announcements regarding President Sparks’ departure here: Sparks and Trustees.)  

Currently serving as interim president is Malcolm King. King graduated from Cooper’s Albert Nerken School of Engineering in 1997, was elected to The Cooper Union Board of Trustees in 2013, and became chair of the board in 2020. In June 2024, he was elected by the full board to serve as interim president while a comprehensive search is conducted for Sparks’ successor.  

Search Process  

Leading this process is a Presidential Search Committee, composed of 11 members including alumni and non-alumni trustees, faculty representatives to the board, and a student trustee. (Each of the faculty representatives to the board was elected by their faculties. The Cooper Union student trustee was  elected by students.) The committee members also span Cooper Union’s schools of architecture, art, and engineering as well as the faculty of the humanities and social sciences. The Presidential Search Committee members are:  

•    Jamie Levitt (Co-Chair), Trustee & Interim Board Chair   
•    Lou Manzione ChE’75 (Co-Chair), Trustee   
•    Anne Chao, Trustee  
•    Maurice Cox AR’83, Trustee   
•    Pamela Flaherty, Trustee   
•    Jadynn Hammond A’25, Student Trustee   
•    Raffaele Bedarida, Associate Professor of Art History, Representative to the Board  
•    Benjamin Davis, Professor of Chemical Engineering, Representative to the Board   
•    Beverly Joel A’95, Adjunct Professor of Art, Representative to the Board  
•    Michael Young, Associate Professor of Architecture, Representative to the Board   
•    Malcolm King (Interim President) (ex-officio member)     

The committee selected Spencer Stuart, a global executive search firm with a dedicated Academia & Research practice, to lead the search effort. Spencer Stuart, one of four firms that made formal presentations on their approaches to the assignment, was chosen unanimously by the committee due to the firm’s deep understanding and expertise in recruiting candidates with the experience, skills, and attributes necessary for college and university presidents.    

Spencer Stuart has met with The Cooper Union community to receive input for the official position description for Cooper Union’s next president. The firm met with each of the faculties in architecture, art, engineering, and the humanities as well as key administration leaders and staff. In addition, Spencer Stuart provided an online survey to the entire Cooper Union community as another way of collecting feedback for the position description.  

The goal for the overall search process is to identify Cooper’s next president by the end of the Spring 2025 semester.  

If you have questions on the search process, please email presidentsearchcommittee@cooper.edu..       

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.