Officials selected a national firm to guide the University’s ongoing search for a permanent University president, Board of Trustees Chair Grace Speights announced in an email to the GW community Monday.

Speights said Education Executives – a California-based executive search firm that specializes in searching for upper administrators at U.S. colleges and universities – will work with the presidential search committee to collect input from the GW community, develop a presidential profile and manage the nomination and application process for the University’s top job. The announcement marks the second step in the presidential search since Speights announced the formation of the presidential search committee to launch the overall process in April.

“The presidential search committee was impressed by Education Executives’ knowledge of, and commitment to, GW,” Roslyn Brock, a trustee and the chair of the presidential search committee, said in a release. “Their team has former experience as president, provost and dean and has a strong track record in presidential searches at major research universities, using innovative approaches.”

Speights said the presidential search committee selected the firm because of its past involvement in presidential searches at institutions like Johns Hopkins University, Emory University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Rice University.

“The presidential search committee was impressed by Education Executives’ commitment to GW and the team’s experience in higher education, including its work with major research universities,” Speights said in the email.

The email states the firm will seek candidates with experience at other institutions through nominations from community members and other “innovative strategies” to ensure the pool of applicants is both highly qualified and diverse.

Speights said Ilene Nagel, the president of Education Executives, will lead a team at the firm working on GW’s search strategy. GW’s search is currently the only ongoing presidential search that Education Executives is assisting, according to the firm’s website.

GW has previously used the executive search firm Issacson, Miller to search for administrators, including former University President Thomas LeBlanc.