New College Hosts Inauguration Ceremony for President Patricia Okker

February 23, 2022 – Sarasota

New College of Florida will host the inauguration of its sixth president, Patricia Okker, Ph.D., on Wednesday, Feb. 23. The on-campus ceremony will commence at 4 p.m. with a procession from the Academic Center down Dort Promenade to College Hall. The inauguration ceremony will be held outside College Hall and will conclude with a lemonade toast on the Bayfront.

Sarasota Mayor Erik Arroyo and State University System of Florida Chancellor Marshall M. Criser III will deliver remarks prior to President Okker’s inaugural address. The invocation will be given by Reverend Dwight Henry, the campus minister at New College; the benediction will be given by Rabbi Susan Marks, the Klingenstein Professor of Religion and Judaic Studies at New College. Music will be provided by the student group Acapellago and by Blue Skye Pipe and Drums.

About President Okker
Patricia Okker, Ph.D. was appointed president of New College of Florida on July 1, 2021. Dr. Okker’s teaching and scholarship focus on nineteenth-century American literature, particularly American periodicals and women’s writing. She is the author of two books and one edited collection: Our Sister Editors: Sarah Josepha Hale and the Tradition of Nineteenth-Century American Women Editors, Social Stories: The Magazine Novel in Nineteenth-Century America, and Transnationalism and American Serial Fiction. In 2003 she was awarded a William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching Excellence.   

Prior to her arrival at New College, she spent 31 years at the University of Missouri, both as a faculty member in the Department of English and in a variety of leadership roles. From 2017-2021 she served as Dean of the College of Arts and Science, where she led efforts that improved student retention rates, increased the diversity of faculty and leadership in the College, implemented a college-wide initiative around career education, and successfully completed the college’s largest fundraising campaign. 

Dr. Okker graduated from Allegheny College with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in religious studies. She earned her master’s degree in English from the University of Georgia, and her Ph.D., also in English, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.