New VPAA brings a commitment to academic excellence, equity, empathy, and learner-centered education.
Antioch University announced that Sandra (Sandy) Madar, PhD, is its new Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) and University Provost. Madar will serve as the University’s senior academic officer, providing academic leadership across Antioch’s five campuses and its three academic schools—the School of Counseling, Psychology, and Therapy; the School of Graduate Nursing and Health Professions; and the School of Interdisciplinary and Professional Studies. Antioch University offers programs onsite, hybrid, and online across locations nationwide.
As VPAA and Provost, Madar will report directly to Antioch’s President, Lori Varlotta, serve as a member of the President’s Cabinet, and oversee academic programs as well as faculty, staff, and administrators across all three schools. Her portfolio includes responsibility for academic quality, program development, faculty affairs, shared governance processes, and system-wide academic coherence.
“As we launched this search last summer, we sought an academic leader to guide—with clarity, steadiness, and purpose—the academics of a complex, multi-sited university,” said Antioch University President Lori Varlotta, PhD. “The search attracted more than 800 applicants from across the country, reflecting both the moment and the mission of Antioch University. Sandy emerged as the top candidate, in part because of the dynamic combination she brings to the table—one that combines academic rigor, integrative thinking, and values-driven leadership. She understands how to balance shared governance with academic decision-making authority while keeping students and mission at the center of the work.”
Madar brings more than 30 years of experience in faculty and administrative leadership, having served as a lecturer, professor, program founder, department chair, dean, associate vice president, and interim vice president at private, nonprofit institutions.
“I’m honored to join Antioch University at a moment when academic leadership must be both principled and adaptive,” said Madar. “I look forward to working with faculty, staff, administrators, and students across all campuses and schools to strengthen academic programs, expand access for learners with complex lives, and advance Antioch’s long-standing commitment to education in service of the common good.”
Most recently, Madar served at the University of Mount Union as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Undergraduate Studies, overseeing 75 undergraduate programs and supporting more than 125 faculty and academic staff. She also served as Co-Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs, with responsibility for faculty affairs across three colleges and more than 80 programs. Previously, she was the Founding Dean of Mount Union’s College of Natural and Health Sciences. Prior to Mount Union, she spent 25 years at Hiram College, where she founded the Biomedical Humanities Program and later served as Associate Vice President for Strategic Academic Initiatives.
In addition to her appointment at Antioch, Madar will serve as Vice President of Graduate Studies for the Coalition for the Common Good (CCG), a higher education system co-founded by Antioch University and Otterbein University in 2024. Antioch serves as the graduate institution within the CCG.
