Dear Alumni Council Members,

I am excited to announce the appointment of Lee Fisher, Dean of the Cleveland State University College of Law and former Ohio Lt. Governor, as the 10th President of Baldwin Wallace University. We are thrilled to welcome him to our campus and look forward to the vision and leadership he will bring to our university community.

The future President brings an exceptional depth of experience and a passionate commitment to higher education that perfectly aligns with our university’s values and aspirations. With an impressive record of leadership, innovation, and collaboration, he has the expertise to guide us through the exciting changes and opportunities that lie ahead.

Dean Fisher has served as dean of the Cleveland State University College of Law for the past nine years and is a prominent and widely respected Ohio leader whose accomplished career spans the public, private, nonprofit, and academic sectors. In 2022, Dean Fisher was inducted in the Cleveland Magazine Business Hall of Fame for his decades-long work on Ohio regional and state economic development.

From 1981 to 1990, he served as a member of the Ohio House of Representatives and the Ohio Senate, and he also served as Chair of the Cuyahoga County legislative delegation. He was Ohio’s 44th Attorney General from 1991 to 1995 and the 64th Lieutenant Governor from 2007 to 2011. 

Dean Fisher is a graduate of Oberlin College and served on Oberlin’s Board of Trustees for 12 years. He earned a law degree from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) School of Law and received the law school’s first-ever Distinguished Recent Graduate Award. He later added a Master of Nonprofit Organization from the CWRU Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations.

Dean Fisher’s appointment follows a comprehensive national search and supports the strategic vision for the university's continued growth and innovation. He will officially take the helm at BW in July.

To celebrate this new chapter for our university, we invite you to join us for a special welcome event on Monday, February 17, at noon in the Kleist Center for Performing Arts, Main Stage. This will be an excellent opportunity to meet our next president, hear what drew him to BW, and come together as a community to welcome Dean Fisher and his wife, Peggy Zone Fisher, to the BW community.

We look forward to seeing you there and to embarking on our next chapter together.

Warm regards,



Lee Thomas
Chair, Board of Trustees
Baldwin Wallace University