LA MIRADA, CALIF. – The Biola University Board of Trustees announced on Thursday the appointment of its eighth president, Dr. Barry H. Corey, effective July 1, 2007. His tenure will officially launch the celebration of Biola’s centennial year.

Dr. Corey, 45, will succeed Dr. Clyde Cook, who is one of the longest-standing college presidents in the nation, serving as Biola’s president since 1982. 

Dr. Corey is a native of Massachusetts and currently serves as Vice President/Chief Academic Officer and Academic Dean of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Hamilton, Massachusetts. He has held this position since 2002, overseeing academic operations including faculty relations, curriculum development and degree/non-degree programs. Before that, he served as Vice President for Development at Gordon-Conwell since 1992, leading all fundraising and external relations programs. During this time, he led and completed a $54 million capital campaign.

Dr. Corey received his B.A. in English and Biblical Studies from Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri in 1984. In 1988, he received his M.A. in American Studies with a concentration in literature and religious history from Boston College’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. He received his Ph.D. from Boston College in Curriculum, Instruction and Administration in 1992.

In addition to his educational experiences, Dr. Corey was a Fulbright Scholar with Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee and lived in Bangladesh among the rural poor from 1990-1991. He serves on a number of non-profit boards including the Board of Trustees of Convoy of Hope, an international relief and development organization, and the Board of Trustees of The Boston Theological Consortium (a nine-member consortium of theological schools in the Boston area including Harvard University, Boston College and Boston University).

Dr. Corey also pastored the Greek Evangelical Church of Boston, an evangelical, ethnically niched, non-denominational church in Newton, Massachusetts, from 1993-2000. He also has completed two Boston Marathons, one in 2004 and one in 2006.

Dr. Corey has been married to his wife, Paula, for 15 years, and they have three children: Anders, 14; Ella, 11; and Samuel, 8.