The seven top officials appointed by former University President Thomas LeBlanc have left GW, announced plans to leave or scaled back their roles since his 2021 departure, which may reflect community pressure to depart the University following his rocky term, experts and faculty said.

In a tenure plagued by widespread calls for his resignation and national attention on the disconnect between LeBlanc’s administration and the GW community, the former University president hired several of his former colleagues from the University of Miami — where he previously served as provost — after 11 GW officials resigned between 2018 and 2019. Vice President for Development and Alumni Relations Donna Arbide’s announcement of her pending exit earlier this month marks the departure or planned departure of all four major UMiami appointees under LeBlanc.

Brian Blake, the former provost, left during the summer of 2021 to become president of Georgia State University, later taking with him Jared Abramson, GW’s former vice president for financial planning, in August 2022 to serve as GSU’s executive vice president.

Both Blake and Abramson worked under LeBlanc at UMiami as vice provost for academic affairs and vice chairman for administration and finance for the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, respectively.

Mark Diaz, GW’s former chief financial officer under LeBlanc who previously served as UMiami’s budget and planning leader, also left in 2022 to serve as the interim executive vice president for business and operations at The New School. Diaz left The New School in December, according to a message from their president.

GW’s former chief of staff, Aristide Collins, left the University in July 2023, coinciding with the beginning of University President Ellen Granberg’s term. He was appointed by LeBlanc in August 2017 and had been at the University since 2010 as the vice president and secretary.

Following Arbide’s departure, Barbara Bass, the dean of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences, will be the only other major LeBlanc hire still at GW. As of May 2024, she no longer serves as the CEO of the Medical Faculty Associates — a position she was appointed to under LeBlanc’s leadership.

Other administrators left for leadership roles elsewhere, including former Chief People Officer Dana Bradley, who left in October 2021.

Collins said in an email that he left GW for a “remarkable” career opportunity at Strada Education Foundation, after he led the transition team for Granberg’s administration. Abramson, Bradley and Blake did not return a request for comment on why they left the University and if LeBlanc’s departure influenced their decision. Diaz could not be reached for a comment.

LeBlanc in 2018 said knowing talented officials from UMiami was an advantage for GW because he knew who the “very best” people were, though he received criticism from students and faculty who raised concerns about inconsistent leadership and lack of communication and service from his administration.

University spokesperson Julia Metjian said leadership changes are “common” and that departures may happen for a “variety” of reasons. Metjian declined to say if officials believe there is a correlation between LeBlanc’s negative reputation and the departures.

Metjian declined to comment on how the University has maintained stability and institutional memory in critical areas like financial planning and academic affairs — which the former officials oversaw — given the high turnover following LeBlanc’s departure, but she said the University’s commitment to “excellence in all aspects” of University operations remains “steadfast and unchanged.”

“The University will continue to focus on our core mission of providing high-quality education, fostering research and innovation, and supporting the success of our students, faculty and staff,” Metjian said.

Trustees appointed LeBlanc as University president in July 2017. His four-year tenure came to an end in December 2021 after community members called for his resignation, accusing him of violating shared governance principles surrounding his 20/30 plan, which aimed to cut undergraduate enrollment by 20 percent and increase the amount of STEM majors by 30 percent over the course of five years.

LeBlanc also faced backlash from students after a video surfaced in 2020 that documented him comparing support for fossil fuel divestment to hypothetical support for shooting Black people. LeBlanc later apologized for the “insensitive” analogy.

Officials said in September 2021 that Mark Wrighton, the former chancellor of Washington University at St. Louis, would fill the position as interim president for up to 18 months.

Katrin Schultheiss, a faculty senator and history professor, said the departures do not come as a surprise to her, even if they are for a variety of reasons, because none of Leblanc’s appointees seemed to have extensive connections with the University.

She said LeBlanc’s UMiami appointees had become “a running joke” among faculty, and were widely commented on.

“It is not really surprising to me that they have all left, even if they left for different reasons,” Schultheiss said in an email. “None had deep roots at GW.”

Schultheiss said it appears Granberg has taken a “different approach” to preserving current officials with long tenures, which she said she appreciates.

Officials have filled two large administrative positions since Granberg assumed the presidency in July 2023, bringing on Chief of Staff Scott Mory and Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics Michael Lipitz — neither of which worked at her former institutions. Mory and Lipitz’s predecessors left GW for positions at a nonprofit and an athletic consulting firm, respectively.

“As far as I know, she has mostly kept in place higher-level administrators with long tenures at GW,” Schultheiss said in an email. “I can’t think of anyone whom she brought with her from her previous institutions. Drawing on the talent and experience of people who have institutional knowledge of GW and are known to faculty and staff seems like a smart approach to me.”

Susan Mulroney, the president of Georgetown’s Faculty Senate and a professor of physiology, said high administrator turnover could indicate officials felt a “little insecurity” in their roles. Depending on the reasons faculty gave for feeling dissatisfied with the former president, administrators appointed under the old administration might worry their job security would be affected by new leadership, Mulroney said.

“When people see that there’s dissatisfaction in the faculty, with what the faculty are thinking, I think everybody gets worried, you know, if they’re going to be next,” Mulroney said.

Victor Borden, a professor of educational leadership and policy studies at Indiana University Bloomington, said it’s typical for new presidents to assemble their own team, who serve at their discretion, as a new administration often brings a set of changes they wish to implement. He said when university presidents leave office, their team often leaves eventually, even if they don’t leave immediately.

“The average (probably median) term for a University President is about six years, which means half of all presidents serve a shorter term,” Borden said in an email. “Administrative turnover at the top is very disruptive in many ways.”

Noelle Arnold, a senior associate dean and professor of educational administration at The Ohio State University, said leadership and structural changes are common during university presidential transitions because new leadership may bring a different strategic focus, prompting administrators to voluntarily step down or reassess their roles.

“New leadership might bring a different strategic focus, leading to a reshuffling of leadership to align with their goals, which might lead to some administrators voluntarily stepping down or reassessing their roles within the evolving leadership landscape,” Arnold said in an email.