SUNY Brockport President Heidi Macpherson announced her plans to retire as the University’s seventh president during Brockport’s annual faculty/staff convocation on August 19. Macpherson, Brockport’s first female president, will retire following the 2025-2026 academic year.
Macpherson has led SUNY Brockport’s post-pandemic resurgence. Over the past three years, Brockport’s enrollment has grown by 20% – bucking national and regional trends. This success is in large part due to leadership’s strategic decision to invest in scholarships – three out of four SUNY Brockport undergraduates now receive scholarships – and new academic programs. Brockport now offers doctoral programs in nursing practice and education and is the only SUNY comprehensive university to offer doctoral degrees. This summer, the university launched a School of Nursing.
“SUNY Brockport has great momentum. We have become an institution of choice for students seeking a high quality, affordable education that puts them in position to accomplish their goals. I am incredibly grateful to our faculty and staff for their hard work and dedication to student success,” Macpherson said. “I’d also like to thank our students and alumni for continuing to inspire and motivate us on a daily basis. Sharing their stories has been a true joy. It has been an honor to serve as president of SUNY Brockport.”
Macpherson notified SUNY Chancellor John B. King, Jr. of her plans to retire this summer so that he could take steps to constitute a Presidential Search Committee according to SUNY guidelines. Macpherson intends to step down next summer, the date being determined by when a new president can be appointed.
Macpherson succeeded former president John Halstead in 2015, coming to Brockport from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where she served as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. She began her academic career in the United Kingdom, where she taught American literature, women’s literature and creative writing at the University of Central Lancashire from 1995 to 2007. She served as dean of humanities and held two pro vice-chancellor roles at De Montfort University in Leicester, England before returning to the United States.
Macpherson has written several books, including Women’s Movement (2000), Courting Failure (2007), Transatlantic Women’s Literature (2008), and The Cambridge Introduction to Margaret Atwood (2010). Her latest work, a poetry collection titled Mo(u)rning Rituals, was published in 2024.
SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. said, “Since becoming SUNY Brockport’s seventh president, Dr. Heidi Macpherson has demonstrated a strong commitment to cultivating the growth and engagement of students, which is fundamental to the campus’s mission. Heidi is a champion for academic excellence and to furthering the success of each student, faculty, and staff member. I thank Dr. Macpherson for her service to SUNY Brockport, and I look forward to working with the campus over the coming search to continue and build on this legacy.”
SUNY Brockport College Council Chair Scott Turner said, “My colleagues and I on the College Council are so privileged to have served during Heidi Macpherson’s presidency. To say that we will miss her is an understatement. Words alone are inadequate to describe her tenure at SUNY Brockport. As the institution’s seventh (and first female) president, she has led Brockport to new heights, always putting students and their success first. Assembling a strong leadership team around her, she positioned Brockport as a leader among the 13 SUNY comprehensive colleges, including in undergraduate enrollment (in the face of a declining college-age population) and in the establishment of two first-ever doctoral programs.”
Dr. Heidi Macpherson
Notable Accomplishments
•Led SUNY Brockport’s efforts to grow its enrollment, which has resulted in 20% enrollment growth since 2022 and eliminated a $10 million post-pandemic structural deficit.
•Launched doctoral programs in nursing practice (2021) and education (2025), becoming the first and only SUNY comprehensive university to offer doctoral degrees.
•Launched a School of Nursing (2025).
•Earned University status (2022).
•Opened Eagle Hall, a $24 million residence hall, and renovated the Albert Brown Building and Lathrop Hall.
•Made significant improvements to infrastructure, including the addition of a new electrical grid that will reduce the University’s carbon footprint in the years to come.
•Added women’s flag football as a varsity sport (2025).
Community Service
•United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes (2018-present)
•Willow Domestic Violence Center (Member 2017-2023, Vice Chair 2023-present)
•Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce (2019-2025)
•YWCA of Rochester and Monroe County (2017-2021)
•Roc the Future Board of Conveners (2017-2022)
•Rochester Rotary, (Member 2015-2025, VP of Membership 2025-present)
Honors and Awards
•ATHENA International Award (2020)
•Rochester Business Journal’s Power 100 list (2021-2025)
•Inaugural CommUNITY Award from Brockport Village Board (2021)
•Department of the Army Commander’s Award for Public Service (2019)
•Teddi Award from Camp Good Days and Special Times (2018)
•Honorary Chairwoman New York Special Olympics (2018)
•New York Woman of Distinction (2016)
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