Dr. Brenda Kelly welcomed as St. Scholastica president in Duluth

Trombones and flowers greeted Dr. Brenda Kelly as The College of St. Scholastica formally welcomed her as president, and Kelly used the ceremony to set out the early priorities facing the Duluth institution. She said the college’s next chapter would center on student success, institutional sustainability and its Catholic Benedictine mission.

The welcome carried a distinctly local tone. Faculty and students greeted Kelly with music and flowers, and Kelly said she and her husband had recently moved to Hermantown and were settling into their new home. For a college president, that detail matters: Kelly is not arriving as a distant administrator, but as a new neighbor in the same north metro community the college serves.

Her remarks pointed directly to the pressure points that small private colleges are confronting across the region. Enrollment remains a central question, along with affordability for students and the long-term finances needed to keep programs, buildings and services stable. Kelly’s emphasis on student success also suggested a focus on retention, support services and outcomes after graduation, all of which shape whether St. Scholastica remains a realistic option for families in Duluth, Hermantown and across St. Louis County.

The college’s role in the local economy gives the transition broader stakes. St. Scholastica has long been tied to health care, education and workforce development in Duluth, and its reach extends into partnerships with hospitals, school districts, nonprofits and employers throughout the area. That makes the president’s office a civic post as much as an academic one, especially in a region where colleges help supply nurses, teachers and other trained workers.

Kelly also signaled that St. Scholastica intends to keep its Benedictine identity at the center of decision-making even as it adapts to changing student expectations. That balance between tradition and change will shape what students experience in classrooms and advising offices, how faculty plan programs, and how the college positions itself in the community.

For students, faculty, alumni and local employers, the transition is about more than a new name on an office door. It is about whether St. Scholastica can hold onto its mission, strengthen its finances and remain a dependable anchor for the Northland’s education and health-care workforce.