Andrea Talentino, M.A. '94, Ph.D. '98

On Oct. 15, Andrea Talentino was inaugurated as the ninth president of Augustana College in Rock Island, Illinois. Her selection was announced last December.

Prior to joining Augustana, Talentino was the provost of Nazareth College in Rochester, New York. She also served as the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Norwich University in Vermont. She was an associate dean at Drew University in New Jersey, held a faculty position at Tulane University and a postdoctoral position at Princeton University.

Talentino earned a bachelor’s degree in political science at Yale University, then completed her master’s and doctorate in political science at UCLA. While serving as dean at Norwich, she earned an MBA with a concentration in organizational leadership.

Early in her career in higher education, she was honored twice for excellence in undergraduate teaching at Tulane University. Since then, even as she rose within the administrative ranks at the institutions she served, she has continued to teach.

“Everything I've ever done is about being a teacher, even when I’m in administration,” Talentino said. “An institution is not going to move forward if you’re not also developing the people, and the people aren’t going to be motivated and excited if you’re not moving the institution forward.”

Talentino unanimously was recommended to the Board of Trustees by Augustana’s 13-member presidential search committee, which included trustees, faculty, alumni and a student representative. Beginning in February 2021, committee members worked with an executive search firm, Academic Search, to identify exceptionally qualified candidates.

Born in Binghamton, New York, Talentino grew up in nearby Cortland, New York. She is married to Thomas Tarnow, a public interest attorney, and they have two children: Lucien, 14, and Julia, 10.