SLIPPERY ROCK — The committee in charge of finding a successor for retiring Slippery Rock University President Cheryl Norton has hired a consulting firm to aid its effort.

AGB Search, a firm that was founded in 2010 by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities, is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

It focuses exclusively on higher education leadership, conducting searches for college and university executives and CEOs of coordinating boards and related foundations.

The firm will be represented in SRU’s search process by JoAnn Gora, a consultant and former president of Ball State University, and Jamie Ferrare, the firm’s founding managing principal.

Gora will work directly with SRU’s Presidential Search Committee, which is made up of Jeffrey Smith, a supply chain manager for PPG’s Flat Glass business; Thomas Breth, a partner in the law firm Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham; and Robert Taylor, the chairman and chief executive of The Cameron Companies. All three men are also members of SRU’s Council of Trustees.

Ferrare will assist in recruiting and vetting candidates, and provide any additional support SRU needs during its search, the university said in a release announcing AGB’s hiring.

Smith said that the subcommittee in charge of adding members to the search committee is also preparing to add other members to its ranks. A list of recommendations is expected to be presented to the university council of trustees on Wednesday, and then forwarded to the university chancellor’s office for final approval.

The search committee, by policy, includes three trustees, a university executive, faculty, noninstructional employees, a student, an alumnus and up to three other individuals from within the university. The committee also includes a liaison from the state system chancellor’s staff and the president of another state system university, who both serve as nonvoting members.

Norton will retire July 21.