New President starts at Colorado State University

AMY PARSONS, A LONGTIME CSU and CSU System leader, returned to the flagship campus in Fort Collins in February as the university’s 16th president.

The Board of Governors of the CSU System hired Parsons after a competitive nationwide search guided by a Presidential Search Advisory Committee of 31 people representing key university stakeholder groups.

“Amy is a leader with proven results who brings a deep appreciation and respect for the university and its academic mission, as well as the business expertise needed to manage the complexity of an organization this size,” Kim Jordan, chair of the Board of Governors, said.

Colorado State is a top-tier public research university with about 30,000 students, a quarter of whom are the first in their families to pursue college degrees. It has 9,500 employees, an annual budget of $1.2 billion, CSU Extension offices serving every county in Colorado, and longstanding partnerships in Fort Collins and across the state.

“I look forward to doing important work with the campus community and, together, leading CSU into a new era of achievement and excellence,” Parsons said.

Trained as a lawyer, Parsons worked for several years as a litigation attorney in Denver, then joined the CSU legal team. She rose to executive leadership roles at CSU and the CSU System and led some of the most comprehensive projects in university history, including establishing the CSU Spur campus in Denver, Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, and the CSU Todos Santos Center in Mexico. Parsons also taught courses in a CSU master’s degree program. More recently, she has worked as founding chief executive officer of a global e-commerce company, Mozzafiato LLC, which sells Italian luxury brands.

During her transition into the presidency, Parsons will work closely with Interim President Rick Miranda, who is chief academic officer for the CSU System. Miranda stepped into the interim role after the departure of former President Joyce McConnell in Summer 2022.

For more information, visit source.colostate.edu.

Photo at top: Amy Parsons, 48, grew up in Cheyenne, Wyoming; she earned a political science degree at Colorado State University and a law degree at the University of Colorado Boulder. Parsons worked for 16 years in leadership roles at Colorado State University and the CSU System and recently was CEO of an international e-commerce company based in Denver. Photo: Ben Ward / CSU Photography.