Valerie Smith, the first Black president of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, has announced her intent to retire at the conclusion of the 2026-2027 academic year. Dr. Smith, who also serves as the inaugural Roy J. and Linda G. Shanker Presidential Chair, began her presidency at the highly selective liberal arts college in 2015.
“Serving as Swarthmore’s fifteenth president has been one of the great privileges of my life,” said Dr. Smith. “Every day, I am reminded that, in addition to its academic excellence, Swarthmore is defined by the students whose curiosity and conviction inspire us all; the faculty whose teaching and scholarship expand the boundaries of knowledge; by the staff members whose dedication sustains our shared work; and by alumni, families, and friends whose stories are living testaments to the power of a Swarthmore education, and whose loyalty and generosity ensure that this community continues to thrive.”
Before coming to Swarthmore, Dr. Smith was dean of the college and the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature at Princeton University. She first joined the Ivy League institution in 1980 as an instructor of English and was awarded tenure in 1986. Dr. Smith left Princeton briefly in 1989 to join the faculty of the University of California, Los Angeles. She returned to Princeton in 2001 and was named chair of the African American studies program one year later.
Dr. Smith is a graduate of Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, and holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia. A scholar of African American literature, she is the author or editor of several books, including Toni Morrison: Writing the Moral Imagination (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014) and Not Just Race, Not Just Gender: Black Feminist Readings (Routledge, 1998)