Blackburn College recently hired a new college president. His name is Mark Biermann, and he is thrilled to be a part of the Blackburn community. Biermann chose to apply to work at Blackburn because of the combination of the liberal arts program and the work program.
Biermann attended college for both his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Rochester in New York. He was born in Lethbridge Alberta, Canada, and he moved around a lot when he was growing up. He has lived in Nebraska, Michigan, Indiana and now Illinois.
Biermann’s favorite thing about Blackburn so far is working with the faculty, staff and students. The Blackburn community’s willingness and determination to speak up about issues impresses him.
Some goals Biermann intends to accomplish for the school are safely getting through COVID-19, increasing enrollment, improving diversity, equity and inclusion, increasing marketing for Blackburn, improving the website and fundraising to improve facilities.
When Bierman is not spending his time working on improving the school, he likes to read, ride his bike, take pictures, watch movies and travel. He has traveled to 49 out of 50 states. His favorite sports teams are the Nebraska CornHuskers and the Kansas City Chiefs. Biermann’s favorite movie is “Casablanca”, and he enjoys watching documentaries on PBS. His favorite foods are ice cream and a good burger.
Biermann’s favorite band is the Beatles, with U2 being a close second, and his favorite music genre is rock. He also likes some classical music. Biermann’s favorite holiday is Easter, and he has a golden retriever named Daisy. Daisy is very shy and timid, and Biermann often walks Daisy around campus with his wife, Lois.
The two most interesting places that Biermann has visited are the Teton national park in Wyoming and London, England. He has traveled to many places and seen many cities, but those were his favorites. Biermann’s favorite quote is the entire poem, “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost.
Biermann’s message to the Blackburn community is, “I am really happy to be here, I’ve been very busy since I got here, but that’s okay. There’s a lot of good things to do. I see so much wonderful potential. Blackburn does so many things really well, and it’s a great school, and it has wonderful people. I think it can do even more. I see so much potential for it to be even more powerful and effective. I am just looking forward to seeing what I can do to help that.”