President Kathy Krendl
kkrendl@otterbein.edu
One Otterbein College
Westerville, OH 43081
(614) 823-1420
Executive Assistant
mkerr@otterbein.edu
(614) 823-1232
President Kathy A. Krendl
President Kathy A. Krendl took office July 1, 2009, becoming Otterbein College's 20th president. She is the first woman to lead Otterbein, a school with a rich history of inclusiveness. Otterbein was one of the first schools to admit women on an equal basis with men, and has admitted women to its full-time academic programs since its founding in 1847.
President Krendl received her bachelor's degree in English from Lawrence University (Wisconsin), her master's degree in journalism from The Ohio State University and her doctorate degree in communication from the The University of Michigan. After holding teaching positions at Ohio State, Southern Illinois, and Indiana University, President Krendl joined Ohio University in 1996 as a professor of Telecommunications and dean of the University's Scripps College of Communication. In 2004, she was appointed provost and became responsible for 11 colleges on the University's main campus. In 2007, she was promoted to executive vice president and provost.
President Krendl was chosen to lead Otterbein following an eight-month nationwide search by a 14-person Search Committee. The Committee included representatives from all Otterbein constituencies, including trustees, faculty, students, administrators, support staff and alumni.
President Krendl is joined at Otterbein by her husband, Richard Gilbert, who will take on teaching duties beginning in the fall of 2009. Gilbert has worked in university press book publishing, holds a master's degree in creative nonfiction writing from Goucher College and was a Kiplinger Fellow in Journalism at Ohio State.
The couple has a son, Tom, a college sophomore, and a daughter, Claire, who attends Penn State.
