Lori Varlotta, Sacramento State University’s Senior Vice President for Planning, Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, has been named as the next president of Hiram College.

Varlotta signed a three-year contract and will begin her new position in August as the first female president at Hiram located in Hiram, Ohio.

For the past 11 years, Varlotta has worked at Sac State where she managed 22 departments, regulating the university’s student enrollment.

She was responsible for recruiting and enrolling the most diverse and largest classes in Sac State’s history.

Varlotta took part in the process of conceptualizing and overseeing the construction of The Well, the American River Courtyard and developing a student veterans program.

“Lori has made a very positive impact on our campus during her 11 years,” said Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez. “She has led major transformations in the student experience in virtually every aspect, from cutting wait times in Lassen Hall for student services to strengthening our co-curricular activities so they support academic success.”

Varlotta, who has 29 years of university administration experience, contributed to issues in retention and graduation, student planning, budgeting, health and wellness.

Her involvement outside the university expands to contributing to the state and national educational platform for improving higher education.

Varlotta has taken part in designing the country’s first voluntary program for higher education called the College Portrait, a program for students offering comparable information for 300 public colleges. It is designed to help prospective students decide and research which colleges they are interested in attending.

In a press release, Ken Moore, chairman of the Hiram College Board of Trustees wrote she was the unanimous choice of the Board of Trustees and was very favorably received by the faculty, staff, students and alumni whom she met during the search process.

“She has a deep commitment to Hiram’s nationally respected liberal arts tradition and possesses enormous energy and creativity that will allow her to be a highly effective college president,” Moore said.

As of now, there are no candidates to replace Varlotta’s position.

“The President is working with her to ensure a smooth transition for the unit,” said Sac State President of Communications John Kepley. “ Because Varlotta will be here this semester, we haven’t begun a search at this point and it’s too soon to determine how that will take shape.”