The First Woman President of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology

Heather Wilson was selected as the 19th president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology in Rapid City. When she takes office in June, Dr. Wilson will become the first woman president of the institution in its 128-year history.

The South Dakota School of Mines and Technology enrolls about 2,000 undergraduate students and 300 graduate students. Women make up 26 percent of the undergraduate student body.

Dr. Wilson served in the U.S. House of Representatives representing New Mexico from 1998 to 2009. In Congress, Dr. Wilson served on the Energy and Commerce Committee and was chair of the subcommittee on technical and tactical intelligence. Since leaving Congress, she has established her own consulting company where she has worked with several national laboratories such as Oak Ridge, Los Alamos and the Battelle Memorial Institute.

Dr. Wilson is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. She was a member of the third class to admit women. She was a Rhodes Scholar and earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in international relations at Oxford University in England.