Mount Holyoke selects an alumna to lead school
Lynn Pasquerella, provost at the University of Hartford, was named yesterday as the 18th president of Mount Holyoke College.
Pasquerella was the unanimous recommendation of a 16-member search committee, and will officially assume the presidency July 1. She was introduced at the all-women’s college during a ceremony on the South Hadley campus yesterday afternoon.
“I feel thrilled,’’ Pasquerella said by phone yesterday. “It is so exciting for me to give back to a college that has given me so much.’’
She is an alumna of the school, graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1980.
Pasquerella will succeed Joanne Creighton, who has held the position since 1996. Under Creighton’s leadership, applications increased by 50 percent and the endowment nearly tripled before the recession.
“I want to get reacquainted with the community and listen to the aspirations people have for Mount Holyoke,’’ she said.
The college has an enrollment of 2,200.
A native of Connecticut, Pasquerella received her doctorate in philosophy from Brown University.
At the University of Rhode Island, Pasquerella was a professor of philosophy and became the university’s associate dean of the graduate school. In 2006, she was named vice provost for research and dean of the university’s graduate school.
In 2008, she returned to Connecticut and became the University of Hartford’s provost and chief academic officer.
In a statement, Walter Harrison, president of the University of Hartford, said: “Lynn Pasquerella is a powerful intellectual force, a dynamic and compassionate leader, and a charismatic and wonderful human being. I am as fond of her as anyone I have ever worked with, and our whole community will be devastated that she is leaving after only a year and a half as provost. But we are all so very proud of her.’’
