Former Skidmore College President Jamienne Studley Named CEO of Accrediting Agency

The Western Senior College and University Commission has announced that Jamienne S. Studley will become the organization’s president and chief executive officer in January.

The Western Senior College and University Commission is a regional accrediting agency serving a diverse membership of public and private higher education institutions throughout California, Hawaii, and the Pacific. It is recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as certifying institutional eligibility for federal funding in a number of programs, including student access to federal financial aid.

In 1999, Studley was named the sixth president of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York. She was the first woman to hold that position. Earlier, she was a lecturer and an associate dean at Yale Law School. During the Clinton administration, Studley was acting general counsel for the U.S. Department of Education. From 2013 to 2016, she served as deputy under secretary for the Department of Education for the Obama administration.

Studley is a magna cum laude graduate of Barnard College in New York City. She earned a juris doctorate at Harvard Law School.