After two years at the helm, the president of College of the Atlantic said she’s been offered the opportunity to lead a small, liberal arts–based university in Salt Lake City.
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After two years at the helm, the president of College of the Atlantic said she’s stepping down at the end of the academic year.
“My decision is a deeply personal one, shaped by an opportunity that will allow me to return to Utah, a place that has been home for more than 30 years,” Sylvia Torti wrote in an email to the community this morning.
Torti said she’s been offered the opportunity to lead a small, liberal arts–based university in Salt Lake City.
She is College of the Atlantic's eighth president.
‘Meaningful progress’
Torti, a writer, ecologist and academic, assumed her role at the Bar Harbor school in July 2024.
Her previous experience included 11 years as dean of the Honors College at the University of Utah, a liberal arts college, where she said she tripled the diversity of the student body, increased the number of out-of-state students, created an office to mentor nationally competitive scholarship recipients and began a globally oriented curriculum in ecology, health and human rights.
Founded in 1969, College of the Atlantic has 350 students and 35 faculty members with a focus on human ecology, a field that aims to integrate knowledge from all academic disciplines and from personal experience.
“The work happening across the college — among students, faculty, staff, alumni, and partners — continues to demonstrate the power and relevance of human ecology in a rapidly changing world,” Torti wrote.
Torti said the past two years have seen “meaningful progress.”
“We’ve strengthened the systems that support our work, built new partnerships and aligned our operations toward a more sustainable future,” she wrote. “We’ve also advanced critical IT modernization efforts that will enhance student success and institutional resilience. These steps position the college well for the years ahead.”
Interim president
Torti said she would work with the board of trustees and leadership team in the coming months on a transition.
The trustee executive committee will recommend the appointment of College of the Atlantic's vice president of institutional advancement, Lynn Boulger, as interim president at the board’s spring meeting on April 18, Torti said.
Boulger served as dean of institutional advancement at College of the Atlantic for 13 years before leaving in 2021 to become executive director of the Authors Guild Foundation. She returned to COA in 2025 in her current role.
