Princeton Provost Amy Gutmann is the sole nominee for the University of Pennsylvania presidency, the university’s Executive Committee of Trustees announced at a press conference Thursday morning.

The unanimous nomination came Wednesday night after a four-month search to replace Judith Rodin, who has been president of the university since 1994. Rodin announced last June that she will step down at the end of the school year. Gutmann will assume the presidency on July 1.

“Today’s announcement represents the culmination of an exhaustive search process, one that has endeavored to include input from all of [the University of Pennsylvania’s] constituencies and identify the one best candidate to lead this institution forward in this next decade,” University of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees Chair James S. Riepe said at the press conference.

The Consultative Committee for the Selection of a President included trustees, faculty members and students, University of Pennsylvania spokeswoman Phyllis Holtzman said.

Riepe said he is confident that Gutmann will sustain the momentum of Rodin’s presidency.

“Amy is a distinguished scholar, an excellent administrator, a profound social and political thinker and a passionate advocate for ethnic and cultural pluralism — all of which positions her to be a great leader for Penn,” Riepe said at the press conference.

Gutmann has been provost of Princeton since September 2001 and a faculty member there since 1976.

During the months ahead, Gutmann will make the transition from suburban Princeton, N.J. to the city of Philadelphia, Pa. Gutmann said she is excited to make the move.

“I am looking forward, come July, to beginning a new chapter of my education in this electric and excellent place called Penn in the great city of Philadelphia,” Gutmann said at the press conference.

Princeton President Shirley Tilghman said in a press release she hopes to find Gutmann’s successor as provost early in the spring semester.

“Penn has made an excellent choice in selecting Amy Gutmann as its next president,” Tilghman said in the release. “We will greatly miss her strong leadership and wise counsel.”

Gutmann’s appointment at the University of Pennsylvania makes the university the only Ivy League school to have hired consecutive female presidents.