Mary Baldwin University announces interim president

Mary Baldwin University will have its third president within a year come July 1.

On Wednesday, the private university based in Staunton announced Gary Daynes will serve a two-year tenure as interim president and chief transformation officer beginning this July.

He “shares our commitment to meeting the needs of today’s students and an understanding that doing so requires innovative adaptation,” Constance Dierickx, co-chair of MBU’s Board of Trustees, said in a statement. “We are grateful he has accepted our offer to join us at this consequential time, and the board stands fully behind him.”

Daynes will succeed Todd Telemeco, who became university president in August 2025, immediately following Jeff Stein’s resignation after two years in the role. MBU announced Telemeco’s resignation in January, citing “family and personal reasons.”

Mary Baldwin has had a turbulent academic year, with its decision in the fall to cut 17 minors and reportedly lay off some faculty members receiving opposition from students, alumni and faculty groups. In January, included in the same news release announcing Telemeco’s resignation, the Board of Trustees said it was reinstating four minors and four faculty members.

According to a 2024 audit, the university holds $18.8 million in debt. In its January news release, the board wrote it had “directed the university to align its physical footprint with how students live, learn, and gather today, including exploring the sale or repurposing of university-owned properties that are no longer central to the residential undergraduate experience.”

Daynes is currently interim president of Salem Academy and College, an all-girls high school and women’s college in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and has more than 30 years of experience in small institutions, according to a news release. He authored “How to Be a Small College,” published in 2025.

Daynes is also co-founder and principal of Back Porch Consulting, where he has advised more than 20 private colleges on strategy, program design and financial stability, and he previously held several leadership roles at Salem College, including chief enrollment officer and vice president for institutional effectiveness.

Prior to joining Salem College, Daynes was a senior consultant at higher education consulting firm Credo, according to his LinkedIn profile. From 2013 to 2021, he was provost and vice president for academic affairs at Barton College in Wilson, North Carolina. There, he guided the college through the COVID-19 pandemic, launched 11 additional academic programs and grew freshman enrollment by 25% over two years, according to a news release.

Daynes holds a doctorate and master’s degree in American history from the University of Delaware and an undergraduate degree from Brigham Young University.

Daynes was one of two finalists MBU invited to campus for interviews before the final selection in its presidential search.

“There is no more important work in American higher education than the work that goes on at Mary Baldwin University,” Daynes said in a statement. “MBU’s commitment to its actual students and their communities ensures both the education and well-being of those students, and the strengthening of the communities they serve.”

Daynes and his wife and Back Porch Consulting co-founder, Kristine, will move into the president’s house on MBU’s campus July 1. They have four young adult children.

Founded in 1842, MBU has nearly 1,800 undergraduate and graduate students across Staunton and Fishersville campuses as well as online.