Tori Murden McClure, Chair

Elected June 2005
NOLS Courses: 1985 Semester in Alaska, 1986 Semester in Africa, and a number of Board trips

Tori is the president of Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. Spalding University offers twenty-seven degree programs at the bachelor, master, and doctoral level to more than 2,000 students.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts from Smith College, a Master of Divinity from Harvard University, and her juris doctorate from the University of Louisville’s Louis D. Brandeis School of Law. In 2005, she earned her Master of Fine Arts in writing from Spalding University. Her non-fiction book A Pearl in the Storm was published by Harper-Collins in 2009.

A passionate world adventurer and humanitarian, Tori is best known as the first woman and first American to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She was also the first woman and first American to travel over land to the geographic South Pole, skiing 750 miles from the ice shelf to the pole. An avid mountaineer, Tori has climbed on several continents. She is a fully certified emergency medical technician in both urban and wilderness areas, is a two-time NOLS graduate, and currently serves as the chair of the NOLS Board of Trustees.

In July 2010, Tori became the twenty-eighth president of Spalding University, after serving as the vice president of external relations, enrollment management, and student affairs from 2004 through 2009 and receiving her MFA in writing there in 2005. A long-time resident of Louisville, Tori has also served in a variety of other professional capacities prior to arriving at Spalding University. She remains involved in a variety of community leadership positions and serves on several boards of directors.