The institution which is now Shimer College in Chicago was founded as the Mount Carroll Seminary in 1853. Founder Frances Wood, later Frances Wood Shimer, served as the institution’s first president. Since then, all of the presidents of Shimer College have been men. But in July, the college will install its first woman president since its founder, Frances Wood Shimer.
Susan E. Henking was named the 14th president of Shimer College by the board of trustees. She is an adviser to the board of trustees and professor of religious studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York.
Dr. Henking is a magna cum laude graduate of Duke University. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School. She is the founding editor of the Teaching Religious Studies Series which is forthcoming from Oxford University Press. She is co-editor of Mourning Religion (University of Virginia Press, 2008).
Respectfully: Shimer’s founder, Frances Wood Shimer, was its first female president. Henking will be our first since (though there have been some female interims in the meantime). There’s a list of Shimer’s presidents here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Shimer_College_presidents#Presidents
Henking and Shimer have a few things in common. We could not be more delighted that another woman educator is making the trek from upstate NY to Illinois to lead our unusual college.