JENKINTOWN, PA – Jonathan Peri will become the ninth president and first lay president of Manor College on Thursday, April 21. The 3 p.m. ceremony will take place in the Manor College auditorium (700 Fox Chase Road in Jenkintown, PA 19046).
Leonard J. Mazur, chairman of the Manor College Board of Trustees and co-founder of Akrimax Pharmaceuticals, LLC, will conduct the investiture ceremony. Dennis McGrath, member of the Manor College Board of Trustees and president and CFO of Photomedex, will serve as the master of ceremonies.
Special guests will include Archbishop Stefan Soroka, metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in the U.S.; Jim Cawley, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, and former lieutenant governor of Pennsylvania; and Don L. Francis, president of the Association for Independent Colleges and Universities.
In a historic move, Mr. Peri was selected on October 13, 2015, after an extensive national search by Manor College’s board, to become its first lay president; he started serving the college on November 16 of that year. He succeeds Sister Mary Cecilia Jurasinski, who served as president for 30 years. Sister Cecilia continues at Manor as the director of the Ukrainian Heritage Studies Center.
Prior to becoming president of Manor College, Mr. Peri served as vice-president and general counsel at Neumann University, where as a longstanding member of the executive team he was involved in major institutional decisions and strategic planning. Mr. Peri also served as director of the university’s Center for Leadership program, a venue for teaching ethical leadership, as well as on Neumann’s Board of Trustees Development Committee. Mr. Peri has also served on three state education-related boards, the State Board of Education, the Charter School Appeal Board and the TAP 529 College Saving’s Advisory Board. He received his juris doctor degree from Widener University School of Law and is completing Eastern University’s Organizational Leadership Ph.D. program with a concentration in education.
The Basilian Leadership Gala, an annual event that supports scholarships for Manor students, will follow the inaugural ceremony. The gala will start at 6 p.m. at the Ukrainian Educational and Cultural Center on Cedar Road in Jenkintown, Pa., and tickets can be purchased at www.manor.edu/inauguration. The public is invited to attend both events. For more information on the inauguration and to purchase gala tickets visit www.manor.edu/inauguration.
Located in suburban Philadelphia, Manor College was founded in 1947 by the Ukrainian Sisters of St. Basil the Great. It is a private two-year institution offering transfer and career-oriented programs to traditional age and adult students. Manor offers over 30 academic programs within three academic divisions, Allied Health, Science and Mathematics; Business, Technology and Legal Studies; and Liberal Arts.