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Michelle Volkmann
Media Relations Specialist

volkmi01@luther.edu

Phone: 563-387-1417

Provost Brad Chamberlain appointed president-elect of Luther College

Brad Chamberlain was introduced to the Luther College community today as the president-elect for the nationally known liberal arts college located in Decorah, Iowa.

The college’s current provost, Chamberlain was selected by the Luther College Board of Regents to become the 12th president of the institution, a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Brad Chamberlain head shot

Brad Chamberlain, President-Elect of Luther College

“It is my distinct honor to accept the offer of the Board of Regents to serve as your next president,” Chamberlain told the assembled crowd of students, faculty, staff, alumni and community members at the Center for Faith and Life. “My wife Julie and I are humbled by your faith in selecting us to lead Luther into its next phase.”

With a career of over two decades at Luther, Chamberlain began as an instructor in chemistry in 2001, and has risen through the academic and administrative ranks. He will take over from current President Jenifer K. Ward, who announced earlier this year her intention to retire during the upcoming academic year.

Introducing Brad Chamberlain as President-Elect of Luther College

Learn more about Luther College President-Elect Brad Chamberlain, the college's current provost, who was selected by the Luther College Board of Regents to become the 12th president of the nationally known liberal arts college.

“The board was looking for someone who could understand the macro challenges facing higher education and then translate that into the specific needs of Luther College,” Board of Regents Chair Bob Paulson said. “He cares deeply about his colleagues, about students, about the community—the Decorah community as well as the Luther community—and his ability to connect with people along with his breadth and depth of experience set him apart.”

“Brad is a remarkable leader and remarkable human being,” said Shannon Duval, vice chair of the Board of Regents and co-chair of the Presidential Selection Committee. “Whenever the college has asked him to step up and lead a different area or to learn a new set of skills for the benefit of the college, he has said yes. Once again today, he is saying yes. His ability to know the college, help maximize our momentum and have a vision for Luther makes him the perfect choice to become the next president.”

Chamberlain will be the first president to have been promoted from within the college in more than a century; Luther’s third president, Oscar L. Olson, was a faculty member before becoming president in 1921.

“It is unusual to have an internal candidate with the breadth and depth of experience he has, both a long tenure as a very successful and respected professor but also as an administrator who has had the opportunity over the past years to hold a number of essential positions,” Paulson said. “It also was important to the board that we not lose momentum. We have had some major recent accomplishments and there is still a lot of work to do.”

“Our search consultants shared with us that he brings a national-caliber set of experience and skills, and they made clear that we have a national candidate right in our backyard,” Duval added. “He could go to a lot of different places, and yet he has chosen Luther, he has chosen Decorah, and he has a deep and abiding love for both communities. Our ability to attract and retain a talent like him is a huge win for Luther College.”

Watch Brad Chamberlain's Remarks at the Livestreamed Announcement Event

In his remarks, Chamberlain drew attention to five pillars of his vision for Luther College: build pride, restore belief, strengthen community, clarify identity and enact focus.

“When people think about a college that is drawing excellence out of students, I want them to think about Luther College,” Chamberlain said. “Students arrive at Luther with a set of dreams, and we help them achieve those dreams. But we also want to plant within them dreams that are bigger than the ones they brought with them to college.

Chamberlain spoke to specific ways to use Luther’s identity to focus on the college’s immediate future.

“I want to create alignment around our purpose,” Chamberlain continued. “As I see it, Luther College inspires and equips students to courageously serve the common good. I want us to reclaim that identity as the standard for preparing students for lives of meaning and purpose in service to the neighbor. What I think Luther does well is model and build that sense of focus upon others rather than focusing upon self.”

Chamberlain spoke both to the on-campus gathering and to the wider Luther community of alumni via live streamed video about the power and value of liberal arts education in today’s economy.

“At liberal arts colleges, we talk about the power of ideas, and we teach our students how to evaluate ideas and connect ideas, how to activate ideas,” Chamberlain said. “This is what I think the world needs right now. As we look at the challenges that society is facing, these are not necessarily technical challenges—they are adaptive challenges. This is what a place like Luther College prepares students to do. They are prepared to lead and to serve, but above all, through their leadership and service to others, to make everyone around them better.”

When people think about a college that is drawing excellence out of students, I want them to think about Luther College. Students arrive at Luther with a set of dreams, and we help them achieve those dreams. But we also want to plant within them dreams that are bigger than the ones they brought with them to college.

Brad Chamberlain
President-Elect of Luther College

More About Brad Chamberlain

In his administrative career, Chamberlain’s most recent position as provost began with his appointment as the interim in August 2022, then the permanent selection in December 2022. Utilizing his decade of experience within the academic enterprise, Chamberlain brokered new academic programs and shepherded Luther through a successful interim evaluation by the Higher Learning Commission. He also expanded the Office of Student Success with the addition of Advising, the Career Center, the Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching and the Writing Center to create an integrated student success model, the first of its kind at Luther. 

Prior to provost, he was the vice president for mission and communication from 2019 until 2022. Chamberlain led the implementation of Luther’s first integrated brand strategy. It included the integration of newly identified brand pillars, a refreshed visual identity, social media strategy and a redesigned luther.edu website. In addition, Chamberlain developed the college’s first strategic internal communications plan and co-led the COVID Response Team, under which he provided leadership for the development of a set of indicators and alert levels that provided a flexible and phased approach for all curricular and co-curricular operations during the height of the pandemic. 

Brad Chamberlain with a student looking at a computer

Brad Chamberlain advising a first-year student at registration in 2015.

Joining the college in the fall of 2001 as a visiting professor, Chamberlain has devoted his entire academic and administrative career to Luther. In the classroom, he progressed through the ranks, earning tenure in 2007, becoming a full professor in 2014 and chairing the chemistry department from fall 2014 until spring 2018. A chemist with a specialty in polymers and plastics, Chamberlain has many international, national and regional publications and presentations ranging from the American Chemical Society to the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Starting with research-based grants and external awards, Chamberlain has generated more than $800,000 in total awards. He is also the co-owner of a patent related to his work in polymers. His collaborative research with students was a hallmark of his time in the classroom, with more than 60 mentored undergraduates, three-quarters of whom entered graduate or professional programs and received a wide range of honors, including a Goldwater Scholar and 11 senior honors projects.

In parallel with his research and teaching, Chamberlain began a career of academic leadership at Luther, serving the first of his two terms chairing the college’s Academic Planning Committee in 2006. Leading the shared-governance committee charged with oversight of Luther’s curricula, Chamberlain co-facilitated a revision of the college’s general education curriculum and brokered the creation of new interdisciplinary majors.

Between his two stints with Academic Planning, he was co-director of the College Science Enrichment Project and Luther’s campus director for the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation. Both programs sought to uplift STEM disciplines utilizing external grants. As a part of a 16-institution consortium to broaden support for underserved populations, more than half of the students who participated in the Stokes Alliance program obtained admission to graduate and professional programs.

The Chamberlain family wearing Norwegian sweaters, in front of two ornate buildings

The Chamberlain family in Norway in May 2024: Drew Chamberlain, Luther College class of 2026; Brad Chamberlain; Julie Torkelson Chamberlain, Luther College class of 1996; and Liam Chamberlain, a Decorah High School senior.

Graduating magna cum laude with his bachelor’s in chemistry from Gustavus Adolphus College, Chamberlain earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Minnesota. Before joining the Luther faculty, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Cornell University. A lifelong learner, Chamberlain has continued his education with professional certifications ranging from fundraising management from Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, to diversity, equity and inclusion from Cornell University’s online campus. He is set to complete his latest professional certification in strategy from the Harvard Business School’s online program in January 2025.

A frequent speaker at Chapel and Luther’s student-led worship services, he is the husband of Julie Torkelson Chamberlain, and the couple have rooted their family in Decorah. A 1996 graduate of Luther, she taught middle school English, worked part time in Luther’s admissions office for 15 years, and now serves as the lead pastor of a local congregation. Their oldest son, Drew, is a three-time American Rivers Conference swimming champion and 14-time all-conference junior swimmer for the Norse. Their youngest, Liam, is a senior at Decorah High School.

Contact Information

Michelle Volkmann
Media Relations Specialist

volkmi01@luther.edu

Phone: 563-387-1417