The board of trustees of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., has chosen Ellen Granberg as the university’s nineteenth president. When she takes office on July 1, she will be the first woman to lead the university.
“The George Washington University has the quality, impact, and upward momentum of a world-class academic institution,” Dr. Granberg said. “I am both excited and humbled by the opportunity to serve as GW’s president. But what really draws me to GW is the incredible community of students, faculty, staff, alumni, and friends. I look forward to us all learning from one another and working together to build on GW’s storied 200-year history — expanding our positive influence in the nation’s capital and around the globe.”
George Washington University enrolls just over 11,500 undergraduate students and nearly 15,000 graduate students, according to the most recent data available from the U.S. Department of Education. Women make up 64 percent of the undergraduate student body.
Dr. Granberg is a sociologist who currently serves as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. Before coming to RIT in 2018, she was a professor of sociology, department chair, associate provost for faculty affairs, and senior associate provost at Clemson University in South Carolina.
Dr. Granberg received a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of California, Davis. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in sociology from Vanderbilt University in Nashville and conducted postdoctoral research in family and community health at the University of Georgia.