About the President

Dr. Edward S. Inch is the 13th President of Minnesota State University, Mankato. He assumed the presidency July 1, 2021, and brought with him strategic leadership and an understanding of the importance of working in a collaborative, transparent and authentic manner to build a shared vision.

President Inch sees the University as playing an instrumental role in the lives of its students and region. Dr. Inch brings to Minnesota State Mankato 36 years of distinguished university leadership experience. Before coming to Mankato, Dr. Inch served as the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at California State University, East Bay. Prior to Cal State East Bay, Dr. Inch served as the Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at California State University, Sacramento; Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Capital University in Columbus, Ohio; and Dean of the School of Arts and Communication at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Washington. Dr. Inch began his academic career as a lecturer at Western Washington University before becoming an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Theatre at Pacific Lutheran University.

In addition to his cabinet-level and dean work, Dr. Inch was an American Council on Education Fellow hosted by California State University, Sacramento. While at Pacific Lutheran University, he served as an accreditor for the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. He also earned the Washington State Bar Association’s certificate in Alternative Dispute Resolution and Norway’s Nansen Academy’s certificate in International Peacebuilding. He worked with the Academy’s international initiatives and programs focused on mediation and conflict management in the Balkans.

Throughout his career, Dr. Inch’s top priorities have been improving student outcomes and access, ensuring instructional capacity and proactive learning support services. Providing a strong, student-centered and inclusive learning environment is at the heart of these efforts. Dr. Inch has worked to enhance student/faculty research and creative projects, provide greater access to internships and service-learning projects, develop an innovation and entrepreneurship hub and restructure teaching loads to allow for more and better faculty scholarship.