For the second time in just over a year, a new leader has been named for the University of Maine at Augusta.

Jenifer Cushman will take over as UMA president July 1.

The university system announced Wednesday that its new leader brings more than 25 years of experience in higher education, most recently in a former steel mill town in Pennsylvania.

“We have to move as a country towards a kind of on-demand education model that all learners can access when and where they need it and provide credentials along the way that stand on their own,” Cushman told faculty and staff at Jewett Hall.

Cushman currently serves as the chancellor at Penn State Beaver and was one of three finalists. 

In April 2022, the system announced that it was hiring Michael Laliberte to serve as president effective Aug. 1. But the public disclosure that Laliberte had been the subject of two votes of no confidence while serving at the State University of New York at Delhi led to concerns from faculty.

Laliberte withdrew from the position, but the system has agreed to pay him $235,000 a year until 2024, which could be reduced if he gets another job, according to the Kennebec Journal.

Cushman will take over for interim UMA President Joe Szakas, who has filled in since August 2021, when Rebecca Wyke left for the top job with the Maine Public Employees Retirement System.

University of Maine System Chancellor Dannel Malloy said Wednesday that Cushman has a history of being devoted to small campuses and communities, which makes her a good fit for the post.

“She is also committed to helping those students of lesser resources to be successful at the institutions she has served in currently and in the past,” he said. “That is certainly one of the missions of this university as well.”

He mentioned the impact of the closure of the steel industry in Pennsylvania and Cushman’s involvement in helping the community. She also served in the Peace Corps in Russia and Poland and has degrees from The Ohio State University and Rhodes College in Tennessee.

Though no one who spoke at the announcement directly referenced the situation with Laliberte, professor Patrick Cheek, who served on the search committee as a faculty representative, described a “transparent search.”

UMA is the third largest public university in the state and has campuses in Augusta and Bangor. More than half of all UMA students are 25 or older and nearly 50% are the first in their families to attend college, according to the system.

Cushman described UMA as “the institution of the future.”

“Higher education is changing and the pandemic may have sped up those changes but they’ve been coming for a long time,” she said.