A. Clayton Spencer was named president of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, effective July 1, 2012. She is currently vice president for policy at Harvard University. Before coming to Harvard 15 years ago, she was chief education counsel in the U.S. Senate, working for the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
Dr. Spencer is a native of North Carolina. Her father served as president of Mary Baldwin College and Davidson College. She attended Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire and went on to complete undergraduate study at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she graduated magna cum laude. Dr. Spencer earned a second bachelor’s degree at Oxford University and a master’s degree in religion from Harvard University. She is a graduate of Yale Law School where she was the editor of the Yale Law Journal.