Brown U. president Ruth Simmons, the first black woman to lead an Ivy League university, will step down in June
The Boston Globe
September 16, 2011
Ruth J. Simmons, the first African-American woman to lead an Ivy League university, is stepping down as president of Brown University.
In a statement sent to students, faculty, and alumni yesterday morning announcing her departure, Simmons called her time leading Brown deeply satisfying but said the time was right for a change.
“I recently decided that this is the ideal time both for Brown and for me personally to begin the process of transitioning to new leadership,’’ she said.
Simmons plans to leave her position at the end of the current academic year. She plans to take up professional projects she put on hold while serving as president. She said she plans to then return to Brown to continue teaching as a professor of comparative literature and Africana studies.
Simmons became Brown’s president in 2001 after serving as president of Smith College.
Under her leadership, Brown increased faculty from 573 to 687, built a new home for the medical school in Providence’s Knowledge District, established the Brown Institute for Brain Science, and undertook a $1.4 billion fund-raising campaign.
