 Balch has spent 28 years in higher education and came to Wesleyan after serving as president of Mayville State University, North Dakota.Prior to Mayville, the Uniontown, Pennsylvania, native was the Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty at Bethany College in West Virginia, Vice Provost for Academic Planning at California State University, Chico, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at San Diego State University, Imperial Valley Campus.She served as the director of Wesleyan’s graduate programs in education from 1985–88 and was a member of the education faculty at the college from 1978-88.