- Bethami Dobkin — Westminster University's 19th president — announced her retirement.
- Dobkin was appointed the school's president in 2018 after decades of higher education service.
- The university plans to have Dobkin's replacement hired by next spring.
Westminster University is looking for a new leader.
Bethami Dobkin, the 19th president of the Salt Lake City private university, announced Thursday that she will retire at the end of the 2025-2026 academic year.
Hired in 2018, Dobkin is Utah’s longest-tenured university president.
“It has been an immense privilege to serve as Westminster University’s 19th president,” said President Dobkin in a university release.
“Working together with faculty, students, staff, alumni, and our generous community has been the honor of a lifetime. After spending 40 years in service to higher education, I look forward to spending more time in California with my family in my retirement.”
Westminster University, she added, “will always hold a special place in my heart.”
Preston Chiaro, chair of Westminster’s board of trustees, said Dobkin’s leadership “united our university community around Westminster’s shared values of high-quality inclusive education, integrity and equality.”
Westminster’s board of trustees will be part of a team now embarking on a national search for Dobkin’s replacement, whom they expect will be named in spring 2026.
Dobkin will continue to serve in her role through the end of the current academic year.
Forwarding Westminster’s legacy of an inclusive, ‘personable’ campus
In a Deseret News interview earlier this year to commemorate Westminster’s sesquicentennial, Dobkin spoke of the institution’s defining commitment to welcome students and faculty of all backgrounds.
“Part of our value comes from our inclusivity,” she said. “We were one of the first institutions to pay women as teachers. That kind of thing is so embedded in the fabric of Westminster. It’s part of what contributes greatly to our strength.”
Westminster University’s 150-year-old history of providing students with a broad education within the personable confines of a small school remains strong in 2025, added Dobkin.
“Students have long chosen Westminster as a distinctive place where they can find not just a high-quality education, but one where they can apply what they’re learning and be in close contact with faculty and other support systems.”
Dobkin told the Deseret News that Westminster continues to be a forum where one’s beliefs and opinions are challenged. That environment offers a critical return on investment.
“Colleges and universities (remain) one of the best places to create responsibility, agency, maturity and the ability to build connections with people you wouldn’t otherwise encounter,” she said.
“That’s a building block to a democratic society.”
A Westminster president’s tenure marked by change
Dobkin was appointed in 2018, after more than 30 years of teaching and administrative work in higher education.
In her first year as president, Westminster University achieved national recognition for the successful career outcomes of its students, its work on sustainability and support for first-generation students, and as a leader in promoting diversity, equity and inclusion, according to the university release.
Dobkin, the release added, led Westminster College’s transition to becoming Westminster University in 2023, reflecting the expansion of graduate and professional programs, including two doctoral programs in the School of Nursing and Health Sciences.
During her tenure, she raised $70 million for Westminster, with notable capital achievements including the completion of Florence J. Gillmor Hall and construction of the L.S. Skaggs Integrated Wellness Center.
Other achievements during Dobkin’s tenure include acquiring IPSL Global Engagement, expanding opportunities for Westminster students to engage in study abroad and service-learning experiences and pioneering the launch of Sophomore Study Away in Fall 2025.
Dobkin also launched the first-of-its-kind Mountain Sports Initiative, which provides varsity-level athletic support to student-athletes competing on Westminster’s championship-winning freeski and snowboard teams, along with new teams in mountain biking and climbing and speech and debate.
Under Dobkin’s leadership, the university also opened the Community Clinic and Training Center, providing free mental health care for the Utah community while providing valuable supervised clinical training hours for Master of Clinical Mental Health Counseling students.
Prior to her time at Westminster, Dobkin served for 10 years as the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Saint Mary’s College of California, a private Catholic university.
She also spent 18 years at the University of San Diego where she was a professor and associate provost.
As a volunteer, Dobkin, has served on the Board of Governors and chair of the Nominations and Governance Committee for the SLC-UT Committee for the 2034 Winter Olympic Games, the Executive Committee of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah, the Salt Lake Chamber Board of Governors, the American Council on Education’s Council of Fellows, and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference President’s Executive Committee.