Dear Members of the Smith College Community,

It is my honor and pleasure to chair the committee that will recruit and recommend the 11th president of Smith College.

The committee’s charge is to recommend to the Board of Trustees a candidate of significant professional and personal accomplishment, an individual whose vision and leadership will sustain the college as a premier institution of higher education in the 21st century.

We begin our work from a position of strength. Smith has enjoyed a long history of distinguished presidents. Under the leadership of Carol Christ, our college has more applicants and is more diverse and more global than ever. Our students are outstanding. Our financial position is also strong, with an endowment of more than $1.4 billion, and we have gained national attention for our willingness to engage challenging questions about the future of higher education. Our alumnae, living and working around the world, care passionately about our college and are committed to ensuring for future generations the transformative education they experienced. We are indebted to Carol for sustaining a vision of Smith as an institution for the world’s women and, in her words, “a private college with a public conscience.” Carol’s work will continue through June of 2013; she and the college are laying important groundwork in support of Smith’s future and its next leader.

The search committee is actively seeking input from all members of the Smith community. We want to know the qualities and qualifications you believe essential in the next president. You know Smith better than anyone else and hold insights that will help us convey what makes this college unique, and uniquely compelling. Please tell us your thoughts by e-mailing us at presidentialsearch@smith.edu or responding to the questions on this Web site.

We are assisted in our work by the nationally recognized executive search firm of Isaacson, Miller, whose long history of leadership recruiting in higher education will help us assemble an accomplished and diverse candidate pool.

Smith is an institution with a profound mission of educating women of promise for lives of distinction. While this mission is constant, the next president will achieve it in a very different and more complex world. While there will undoubtedly be challenges, we believe that Smith is poised to have a greater impact in the 21st century than at any time in its history. As a college and a community, we aspire to leadership that recognizes the power of the Smith experience and the role of Smith in creating women leaders. With your collaboration, we are positioned to attract an outstanding leader for the next chapter of the college’s history.

Sincerely,

Louise Parent ’72, Trustee
Chair, Presidential Search Committee
Vice Chair, Board of Trustees
presidentialsearch@smith.edu