From provost to president

Michael Fishbein, provost at Daniel Webster College for five years, will be heading west this summer to take over as president of Antioch University in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

Fishbein, 55, said he had wanted to pursue a president position and wasn’t confining himself to this area.

“I was not so much thinking regionally, but looking for the kind of institution that made sense for me to be involved with,” said Fishbein, who lives in Merrimack.

Antioch University is a system of five institutions located around the country. The New England campus is in Keene.

Fishbein said the university’s focus is on graduate degrees and completion programs for those who started college but never finished. He’ll start in his new position July 1.

Looking back on his time at Daniel Webster, Fishbein said he is most proud of his role in developing several new programs, including an undergraduate degree in homeland security.

The program started last fall with an enrollment of 35 students. Students take courses in subjects such as conflict and terror, stress management and sociology of disasters.

Fishbein said he also played a role in developing four-year engineering programs, as well as revamping the college’s general-education program.

“The program we had when I got here did not meet the test of a culture of evidence,” he said.

Now, the general-education program’s focus is on communication, critical thinking and cultural engagement, he said.