Lynn Pasquerella, president of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, has announced that she will step down at the end of the academic year to become president of the Association of American Colleges & Universities. The association, based in Washington, D.C., has more than 1,350 member institutions. It is concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal arts education.
Dr. Pasquerella became president of Mount Holyoke College in July 2010. During her tenure the college’s endowment has increased from $520 million to $717 million.
In a letter to the Mount Holyoke community, President Pasquerella, stated that “it has been an extraordinary honor and privilege for me to serve as Mount Holyoke College’s 18th president, and I will be forever grateful for the many ways in which the members of this community have shaped both my life and my career.”
After graduating from Mount Holyoke in 1980, President Pasquerella earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Brown University in 1985. Before being named president of Mount Holyoke, she served as provost at the University of Hartford in Connecticut.
The board of trustees of Mount Holyoke College quickly appointed Sonya Stephens to the post of acting president, effective July 1. Her tenure as acting president will last for three years.
Dr. Stephens currently serves as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Mount Holyoke. Before coming to Mount Holyoke in 2013, Dr. Stephens was first vice provost for undergraduate education at Indiana University in Bloomington.
Dr. Stephens is a native of England. She earned a bachelor’s degree in modern and medieval languages and a Ph.D. in French at the University of Cambridge. Dr. Stephens also holds a master’s degree from the University of Montreal in Quebec, Canada.