The board of trustees of Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania, has appointed Stacey Robertson as the eleventh president of the university. She will take office on July 1.
“To say that it is an honor and a joy to be selected for this position is a tremendous understatement,” Dr. Robertson said. “I am looking forward to working with everyone in the Widener community to continue elevating the university’s outstanding reputation, moving its mission forward, and preparing students for successful careers.”
Widener University enrolls just under 3,000 undergraduate students and more than 3,000 graduate students, according to the most recent data furnished by the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 57 percent of the undergraduate student body.
For the past five years, Dr. Robertson has been serving as a professor of history and provost and vice president for academic affairs at the State University of New York at Geneseo. Earlier, she served as dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington from 2015 to 2017. Previously, Dr. Robertson was the Oglesby Professor of American Heritage at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, where her career included serving as chair of the history department from 2008 to 2012 and as director of the women’s studies program for 18 years prior to that.
Dr. Robertson holds a bachelor’s degree in social history and social movements from Whittier College in Whittier, California. She earned a Ph.D. in history with an emphasis in women’s studies, from the University of California, Santa Barbara.