Carol Quillen, president of highly rated Davidson College in North Carolina, announced recently that she will step down from her post at the end of the 2021-22 academic year. She will take a sabbatical year and then return to Davidson College as a professor of history. When she took office in August 2011, Dr. Quillen was the first woman to serve as president of Davidson College.
“Serving as Davidson’s president has been far and away the greatest gift of my professional life,” Dr. Quillen stated in an address to the college community. “We have an exciting year ahead, one that will be filled with unexpected opportunities and likely some distinct challenges. I look forward to working with all of you as we reconnect as a community in pursuit of our primary purpose and highest aspirations.”
Before being named president of Davidson College, Dr. Quillen was vice president for international and interdisciplinary initiatives at Rice University in Houston. From 2006 to 2010, she was vice provost for academic affairs. Dr. Quillen first joined the Rice faculty in 1990 as an assistant professor of history.
Dr. Quillen is a native of New Castle, Delaware. She attended Quaker schools through grade 12. She is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Chicago and holds a Ph.D. in European history from Princeton University.