Newly named George Washington University President Steven Knapp vowed Tuesday to build on the accomplishments of his predecessor to turn the already prominent private school into a world-renowned institution.
Knapp, 55, the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, was named Tuesday to succeed Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, who has been at the helm of George Washington since 1988. In August, Knapp will become the 16th president of the school, which is the city’s largest nongovernmental employer and is home to 10,000 students. Trachtenberg, 68, will become president emeritus.
“There’s no question George Washington will provide the most exciting education available anywhere,” Knapp told a packed auditorium of faculty, staff and students. “George Washington is now poised to advance into the first rank of American research universities.”
Search committee members presented Knapp with a George Washington Colonials baseball cap and a team jacket.
Search Chairman Russ Ramsey praised Knapp’s work at Johns Hopkins, the largest research university in the country, and his ability to raise money and expand research. Knapp had worked to improve student life and reached out to the Baltimore community. George Washington has had skirmishes with Foggy Bottom residents as the university outgrows its campus.
“It’s the right time, the right place and [Knapp] has the right stuff,” Ramsey said.
Knapp said he would tap into D.C.’s cultural and intellectual resources to enhance the school’s reputation in areas such as law, technology, public policy and education. Knapp said he would draw on the contributions of the 70,000 alumni who live in the Washington area and the 220,000 who live around the world.
Knapp, a specialist in English literature, joined Johns Hopkins in 1994 as dean of the School of the Arts and Sciences after 16 years of teaching at the University of California at Berkeley. Knapp and his wife, Diane, have two adult children, Jesse and Sarah.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this story.
