Mariko Silver Selected as the 10th President of Bennington College in Vermont

Mariko Silver has been selected to be the 10th president of Bennington College in Vermont. The college enrolls about 700 undergraduate students and 100 graduate students. Women make up two thirds of the undergraduate student body.

Dr. Silver has been serving as special adviser to the president and professor of practice in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. She is the former deputy assistant secretary for international policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“I am thrilled and honored to lead Bennington, one of the nation’s most innovative liberal arts colleges,” Dr. Silver said. “Bennington stands as a unique and essential voice in the higher education landscape. In its emphasis on the essential role of creativity throughout the curriculum, its developing focus on public service, its commitment to the teacher-practitioner model, and through its most fundamental organizational design element, which places students—and graduates—at the center of what matters, Bennington is distinctly positioned to engage head-on many of the challenges and opportunities facing higher education in the coming decade.”

Dr. Silver is a graduate of Yale University, where she majored in history. She holds a master’s degree in science and technology policy from Sussex University in England and a Ph.D. in economic geography from the University of California at Los Angeles.