WPI president to step down to become director of JPL

WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) — Worcester Polytechnic Institute President Laurie Leshin has announced that she is stepping down at the end of the current academic year to become the director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. Leshin, the first woman to serve as president of WPI, has been at the private college for eight years. The school trustees announced this week that WPI has achieved great things under Leshin’s leadership. The school will name an interim president shortly, and put together a search committee that will conduct a comprehensive national search for a new leader.