Blackburn College President Miriam Pride has announced her retirement, effective June 30, 2013, culminating 22 years of leadership at the college. Ed Young, chair of the Blackburn College Board of Trustees praised Pride for her years of service, and announced that the college has already begun the process of searching for a new president.

Pride came to Blackburn in 1989, serving as Assistant to the President for Campus Life and then Vice President of Administration, before her appointment as the College's first female president in 1991. Prior to her career at Blackburn, Pride worked for 16 years at Berea College in Kentucky, another school that features, like Blackburn, a student work program.