Elizabeth Kiss, who recently stepped down as president of Agnes Scott College, a liberal arts educational institution for women in Decatur, Georgia, was named Warden of Rhodes House at the University of Oxford in England. In this role, she will be the director of the Rhodes Trust which administers the Rhodes Scholarship program. Dr. Kiss will be the first woman to serve in this post.
In accepting the appointment, Dr. Kiss said: “I am thrilled and deeply honored to be given this opportunity to join Rhodes House at such an exciting time in its history. Now more than ever, we need knowledgeable and courageous leaders from all walks of life who stand up for the world. Thanks to its bold vision and dynamism, the Rhodes Trust is uniquely positioned to serve this need.”
Dr. Kiss became president of Agnes Scott College in 2006. Previously, Dr. Kiss was the Nannerl O. Keohane Director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. She also served as an associate professor of the practice of political science and philosophy at Duke. Earlier, Dr. Kiss taught at Randolph-Macon and Deep Springs Colleges and then for eight years at Princeton University. She is the co-editor of Debating Moral Education: Rethinking the Role of the Modern University (Duke University Press, 2010).
Dr. Kiss is a magna cum laude graduate of Davidson College in North Carolina, where she majored in philosophy. She was Davidson College’s first woman Rhodes Scholar and earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Oxford.