Public Statement on Presidential Search

Dyess, Henberg to co-chair presidential search committee

McMINNVILLE, Ore. – Linfield University Board of Trustees members Kirby Dyess and Marvin Henberg will serve as co-chairs of the search committee tasked with identifying the institution’s next president, board chair Lucinda Day Fournier ’95 announced Friday.

Dyess and Henberg also co-chaired the search committee for the interim president, which led to the hiring of Becky Johnson in late December.

Dyess is a former vice president at Intel, who started her own early-stage investment and advisory firm after she retired from the tech company. She has been a Linfield trustee since 2022 and served on the board once before. She served on the Oregon Board of Higher Education, including a term as its president, and the board of the Oregon Community Foundation. She received an honorary doctorate from the University of Idaho in 2018.

Henberg spent 11 years as academic vice president at Linfield and was interim president for one year, before going on to become president at College of Idaho. Now retired from College of Idaho, he has been a Linfield trustee since 2021.

Fournier said Dyess and Henberg are working with the executive committee of the board to determine search committee membership, timeline and processes for community engagement. The co-chairs will also lead the process to identify, evaluate and engage a consultant to help with the search. A proposed timeline, along with more detailed information about the makeup of the committee, is available on this page: Presidential Search Framework.

“Kirby and Marv have an incomparable combination of private and public sector executive leadership and higher education experience,” Fournier said. “Their teamwork and diligence served Linfield's interim search process extremely well, and I'm very excited to have them leading this next search process. It is essential to find the right president for this next chapter for Linfield. I can't imagine two better people to guide the process of finding and engaging that next leader.”