Dr. Michael Grandillo, retired president of Madonna University in Livonia, Michigan, has been appointed interim president of Ohio Dominican University by ODU’s board of trustees. He became president-designate on Wednesday, Dec. 6, five days after the appointment was made, and will assume the presidency on Saturday, Dec. 16.

He succeeds Connie Gallaher, who was appointed as ODU president in 2021. 

“Due to some family health issues and challenges that have arisen recently, Connie actually announced her retirement to the campus community a little less than a month ago” ODU spokesman Tom Brockman said. “The process of the board identifying an interim president has been taking place of the course of a number of weeks.”

Grandillo brings more than 43 years of higher education experience to ODU, including seven years as president at Madonna from 2015 until his retirement in 2022. He has been living since then in Tiffin, where he led a consulting firm specializing in higher education, government and public policy.

At Madonna, he was in charge of a financial and academic transformation that erased a multimillion-dollar operations deficit while transforming the university from a largely commuter to a residential campus, with three new residence halls built and a former high school campus transformed into an arts, academic and athletic center during that time. While he was its president, Madonna’s endowment increased 20 percent, surpassing $54 million. 

Grandillo also has served as president of Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. He spent 17 years as vice president for development and public affairs at Tiffin University and nine years as director of development at Heidelberg University in Tiffin, where he has been a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church for 42 years and held a number of volunteer leadership positions. He also was a City Council member in Tiffin for four terms and was consultant for ODU’s last presidential search.

He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from Ohio Northern University, a Master of Science degree in education from the University of Dayton and his doctorate of philosophy in higher education and Italian Renaissance history from the University of Toledo. He has published many articles in academic journals on subjects including the Renaissance, the American Presidency, student success, and how colleges serve veterans.

He and his wife, Nancy, have been married for 39 years and have a son, a daughter and two grandchildren.