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Mount Holyoke College names new president

E-mail|Link|Comments () November 2, 2009 03:16 PM

By Michaela Stanelun, Globe Correspondent

Lynn Pasquerella, provost at the University of Hartford, was named today 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 on July 1, 2010. She will be introduced at the all-women collegeduring a ceremony on the South Hadley campus this afternoon.

She is an alumna of the school, graduating magna cum laude from Mount Holyoke with a bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 1980.

“I feel thrilled, Pasquerella said by phone today. "It is so exciting for me to give back to a college that has given me so much.”

Pasquerella succeeds 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. Pasquerella said today that she hopes to first reconnect with the Mount Holyoke community.

“I want to get reacquainted with the community and listen to the aspirations people have for Mount Holyoke,” she said.

Mount Holyoke 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 URI’s associate dean of the graduate school. In 2006, she was named vice provost for research and dean of URI’s graduate school.

In 2008, she returned to Connecticut and became University of Hartford’s provost and chief academic officer.

Pasquerella is a project leader for a research team with the Africa Center for Engineering Social Solutions, which focuses on empowering women in Kenya. She has also written extensively in many areas, including medical ethics and the philosophy of law.

In a statement, University of Hartford President Walter Harrison 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.”