Office of the President | Brown University HOME ABOUT BROWN ADMINISTRATION OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT Office of the President Facts About Brown Welcome to Brown University, the third oldest History institution of higher education in New England and Mission seventh oldest in the United States. Founded in 1764, Brown has throughout the decades represented the best President's Report 2012 (PDF) Administration in liberal arts education and leading edge scholarship President and research. Biography As you explore the University’s website, you will get a Contact Information glimpse of the wealth of offerings and people who contribute to a unique academic culture, one that Letters and emphasizes individual innovation and achievement President Ruth Simmons Announcements while underlining the value of mining the diversity of Organizational Chart Brown by pursuing interdisciplinary efforts and fostering intellectual exchange across cultures and perspectives. You will also see that Brown is a university with a Past Presidents long and rich history, one that in each era has reflected the strength of the founders’ Photos and Videos commitment to educating students for a life of “usefulness and reputation.” Today, our students, faculty, alumni and staff demonstrate this commitment to society in a Presidential Hosts wide range of engagements that make a difference throughout the world. Select News Items The primary campus, located on the historic East Side of Providence, contains Staff museums, art galleries, libraries, and beautiful historic buildings. More recently, Student Office Hours the University has expanded its campus into Providence’s downtown and Jewelry District, an appealing new aspect of our growing campus. This expansion has Additional Links important consequences for the economic health and growth of the city and state. The University is committed to working with public officials and citizens of Rhode Senior Staff Island and Providence to advance the economic health of the area. Brown & the World At heart, Brown is a university whose mission is based on striving for academic Visit Brown excellence. This goal pervades every aspect of our identity and has propelled Brown Social@Brown to be ranked one of the best universities in the United States and, more recently, in the world. Importantly, Brown is not only recognized for the rigor of its offerings Brown & Providence and the importance of the scholarship and research produced on the campus but also for the devotion to and enjoyment of Brown that our students and alumni evince. Brown was ranked Number One among “America’s Happiest College Students” in the Princeton Review 2010 rankings. Welcome to Brown. http://www.brown.edu/about/administration/president[6/28/12 8:34:43 AM] Office of the President | Brown University Ruth J. Simmons President TOP DESTINATIONS RESOURCES Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA Commencement A to Z Index Phone: 401-863-1000 Graduate School Career Opportunities Maps & Directions / Contact Us Alpert Medical School Make a Gift © 2012 Brown University School of Engineering People Directory Brown & the World Connect: Social@Brown Brown & Providence . http://www.brown.edu/about/administration/president[6/28/12 8:34:43 AM] Biography | Brown University HOME ABOUT BROWN ADMINISTRATION PRESIDENT BIOGRAPHY Biography Facts About Brown History Mission President of Brown University President's Report 2012 (PDF) Administration Ruth J. Simmons was sworn in as the 18th president of Brown University on July 3, 2001. President She also holds an appointment as professor in the Biography Department of Comparative Literature and the Department of Africana Studies. She was Contact Information president of Smith College from 1995 until the Letters and time of her appointment at Brown. Announcements A native of Texas and a 1967 graduate of Dillard Organizational Chart University in New Orleans, Simmons received her Past Presidents Ph.D. in Romance languages and literatures from Harvard University in 1973. She is fluent in Photos and Videos French and has written on the works of David Presidential Hosts Diop and Aime Cesaire. Select News Items In 1983, after serving as associate dean of the graduate school at the University of Staff Southern California, Simmons joined the Princeton University administration. She remained at Princeton for seven years, leaving in 1990 for two years to serve as Student Office Hours provost at Spelman College. Returning to Princeton in 1992 as vice provost, she Additional Links remained at the university until June 30, 1995. As vice provost she was deputy to the provost and executive secretary of the Priorities Committee, the university’s Senior Staff budget committee. In 1993, invited by the president to review the state of race Brown & the World relations on the Princeton campus, Simmons wrote a report that resulted in a number of initiatives that received widespread attention. In 1995 she became Visit Brown president of Smith College, the largest women’s college in the United States, where Social@Brown she launched a number of strategic initiatives to strengthen the college’s academic programs and inaugurated the first engineering program at a U.S. women’s college. Brown & Providence Simmons is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, and the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a current officer and past President of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, an Honorary Fellow at Selwyn College at Cambridge University, and she serves on a number of boards, including the Howard University Board of Trustees http://www.brown.edu/about/administration/president/biography[6/28/12 8:37:31 AM] Biography | Brown University and the Board of Directors of Texas Instruments. She was recently appointed by President Obama as a member of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. Active in a wide range of educational, charitable, and civic endeavors, she holds honorary degrees from numerous colleges and universities, including Amherst College, Bard College, Howard University, Dillard University, Princeton University, Lake Forest College, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Dartmouth College, Boston University, Northeastern University, New York University, University of Pennsylvania, Mount Holyoke College, Washington University in St. Louis, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, The George Washington University, Columbia University, Harvard University, Ewha Womans University, University of Southern California, Tougaloo College, Jewish Theological Seminary, University of Toronto, Providence College, University of Vermont, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Union College, and The American College of Greece. Simmons is the recipient of a number of prizes and fellowships, including the German DAAD and a Fulbright Fellowship to France. In 1997 she was awarded the Centennial Medal from Harvard University, in 1999 the Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service from Columbia University, and in 2001 the President’s Award from the United Negro College Fund. She has been honored with the 2002 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal and the 2002 “Drum Major for Justice” education award from Southern Christian Leadership Conference/WOMEN. In 2004 she received the ROBIE Humanitarian Award, given by the Jackie Robinson Foundation; the Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal; and the chairman’s award of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation. She was selected as a Newsweek “person to watch” and as a Ms. Woman of the Year in 2002. In 2001 Time magazine named her America’s best college president. In 2007, she was named one of U. S. News & World Report’s top U.S. leaders and — for the second time — a Glamour magazine Woman of the Year. In recent years Simmons, an articulate spokesperson and writer, has written and delivered papers or presentations on a wide array of educational and public policy issues, including institutional governance, foreign language study, diversity, liberal arts, science education, leadership, and women in higher education. Among numerous educational institutions and national forums, she has been a featured speaker at the White House, the World Economic Forum, the National Press Club, the Association of American Universities, and the American Council on Education. In September 2001 ABC News tapped her to serve as a respondent during its live telecast following President Bush’s address to Congress. During her tenure at Brown University, Simmons has created an ambitious set of initiatives designed to expand and strengthen the faculty; increase financial support and resources for undergraduate, graduate, and medical students; improve facilities; renew a broad commitment to shared governance; and ensure that diversity informs every dimension of the university. These initiatives have led to a major investment of new resources in Brown’s educational mission. As an academic leader, Simmons believes in the power of education to transform lives. She champions the university as a haven of reasoned debate with the responsibility to challenge students intellectually and prepare them to become informed, conscientious citizens. She has spent her career advocating for a leadership role for higher education in the arena of national and global affairs. http://www.brown.edu/about/administration/president/biography[6/28/12 8:37:31 AM] Biography | Brown University TOP DESTINATIONS RESOURCES Providence, Rhode Island 02912, USA Commencement A to Z Index Phone: 401-863-1000 Graduate School