Ronald D. Liebowitz is the current president of Middlebury College

Middlebury College

Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...

, and a professor of geography

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

. He was named the College's sixteenth president in April 2004, succeeding John McCardell, Jr.

John McCardell, Jr.

John Malcolm McCardell, Jr. is the Vice Chancellor of The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, and the president emeritus and a professor of history at Middlebury College in Middlebury, Vermont. He retired as president in June, 2004, after serving thirteen years as the fifteenth...

 on July 1, 2004.

Liebowitz had previously served as provost

Provost (education)

A provost is the senior academic administrator at many institutions of higher education in the United States, Canada and Australia, the equivalent of a pro-vice-chancellor at some institutions in the United Kingdom and Ireland....

 and Dean of the Faculty. An expert in Russian economic and political geography, he began teaching at Middlebury in 1984. His first Middlebury experience was as a Language School student in 1980 and 1981.

A native of Brooklyn, Liebowitz received his undergraduate degree from Bucknell University

Bucknell University

Bucknell University is a private liberal arts university located alongside the West Branch Susquehanna River in the rolling countryside of Central Pennsylvania in the town of Lewisburg, 30 miles southeast of Williamsport and 60 miles north of Harrisburg. The university consists of the College of...

 in 1979 and completed his postgraduate work at Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

. He received his Ph.D. in geography in 1985. Liebowitz and his wife, Jessica, have three young children.

Presidency

Liebowitz is Middlebury's third faculty member to be named president, following McCardell and 19th century alumnus Ezra Brainerd

Ezra Brainerd

Ezra Brainerd was president of Middlebury College from 1885 until 1908.Born in St. Albans, Vermont, Brainerd was a graduate of the college in 1864. Brainerd assumed the presidency at a time when the college was recovering from an extended period of hardship...

. In his first year, he shaped the agreement that brought the Monterey Institute of International Studies

Monterey Institute of International Studies

The Monterey Institute of International Studies is a graduate school of Middlebury College, located in Monterey, California, United States...

 under affiliation with Middlebury, and began a comprehensive strategic planning process. Liebowitz kicked off The Middlebury Initiative in October 2007; the largest capital campaign ever by a liberal arts college, the Initiative will raise $500 million to support the strategic plan's primary goals of financial aid and additional faculty.

In 2009 Time Magazine named him one of the 10 best college presidents.

Students generally approve of Liebowitz' tenure as president, as evidenced through the Liebowitz Day student initiative.