Past Presidents
Bryn Mawr's Presidential History
Learn more about the previous leaders of Bryn Mawr College.
Kimberly Wright Cassidy Jane Dammen McAuliffe Nancy J. Vickers Mary Patterson McPherson Harris L. Wofford Katharine E. McBride Marion Edwards Park M. Carey Thomas James E. Rhoads
2013 - 2024
Kimberly Wright Cassidy
Kimberly Wright Cassidy served as President of Bryn Mawr College from 2013-2024. A faculty member at Bryn Mawr since 1993, Cassidy served as the College’s Provost from 2007-2013.
As both Provost and President, Cassidy promoted academic innovation, and partnered with faculty to develop new academic programs and new approaches to teaching in a liberal arts context. Under her leadership, Bryn Mawr created its distinctive multi-disciplinary 360° course clusters; added new interdisciplinary academic programs and majors, including Neuroscience, Data Science, and International Studies; and worked with Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges to develop “TriCo Philly,” a collaborative academic program based in the city of Philadelphia. She embraced the possibilities offered by digital tools to enhance traditional classroom and laboratory experiences through blended learning, and worked with colleagues to build curricular and co-curricular opportunities for all students to gain critical digital competencies.
More about Cassidy's Presidency
2008 - 2013
Jane Dammen McAuliffe
Jane Dammen McAuliffe served as the eighth president of Bryn Mawr College from 2008-2013. Under President McAuliffe’s leadership, the College reinvigorated its liberal arts model for the twenty-first century. With support from organizations including the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the College piloted the use of blended learning in courses across the curriculum. Greater collaboration with Haverford and Swarthmore Colleges led to the creation of the Tri-Co Digital Humanities Consortium and a new Tri-College minor in Environmental Studies. McAuliffe made increasing the number of women entering STEM fields a key advocacy issue of her presidency. In pursuit of a decidedly global agenda, McAuliffe convened educators, activists, business leaders, and policymakers from around the world at Bryn Mawr in forums large and small to spur dialogue and to foster innovative initiatives. She also developed strategic partnerships with several important universities and colleges across the globe. Under McAuliffe's leadership, Bryn Mawr joined with the U.S. Department of State and other leading women’s colleges to establish The Women in Public Service Project. Bryn Mawr’s increasingly global nature was also evident in its international student population, which more than doubled during McAuliffe's tenure.
1997-2008
Nancy J. Vickers
Nancy J. Vickers came to Bryn Mawr from the University of Southern California where she served as Dean of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. An esteemed scholar of French, Italian, and Comparative Literature, she had written a number of well-regarded books. As president, Vickers led a process of transformation that increased applications to the college by forty percent. She also spearheaded a capital campaign that tripled the results of the college's previous efforts and made possible the renovation of the Marjorie Walter Goodhart Hall. According to Sally Zeckhauser, chairman of the board of trustees at the time of Vicker’s retirement, "During her tenure Bryn Mawr initiated a number of interdisciplinary programs that have received national recognition, and she has created faculty positions to support them. The Cambrian Row complex, housing a range of student activities, has helped create a more vibrant student life, as well as a legacy of civic engagement and student activism. Bryn Mawr has demonstrated a powerful commitment to diversity and cross-cultural communication. The college attracts students, faculty and recognition from around the globe."
1978-1997
Mary Patterson McPherson
Mary Patterson McPherson was elected president while serving as the college's dean. Like Park and McBride, she was a Bryn Mawr alumna. Armed with a Ph.D. in philosophy and significant experience as an administrator, McPherson took office at a time of national economic turbulence and double-digit inflation. When McPherson stepped down from the presidency, she had led two successful capital campaigns, balanced the budget, instituted a program of long term planning, and overseen the creation of two new libraries. At the time of McPherson's retirement, Hanna Holborn Gray, BMC '50 and then chairman of the board of trustees, remarked, "Pat's unwavering dedication to rigorous standards of intelligent thinking and constructive debate, combined with her humor and zestful delight in the variety and range of the human comedy, have communicated to all of us both her seriousness and her joy in enabling and enhancing the qualities that lie at the heart of our college."
1970-1978
Harris L. Wofford
Harris L. Wofford graduated from the University of Chicago and held LL.B degrees from Yale and Howard University. When he was elected as the college’s fifth president, he had already risen to national prominence as special assistant to the President Kennedy on civil rights and served as president of the College at Old Westbury. Drawing upon Bryn Mawr’s legacy of producing scholars prepared to be engaged in the world, Wofford led successful efforts to recruit international students to the college and to provide financial support for their enrollment. Simultaneously, he strengthened and broadened opportunities for all its students to study abroad, and to pursue externships and internships. He also encouraged the Board of Trustees to establish a committee on investment responsibility. Wofford led Bryn Mawr during an era of intense political ferment as the nation, in the midst of economic discord, grappled with social issues such as women's rights and civil rights,. Acknowledging the world's turmoil at Convocation in 1970, he said, "The antidote is a deep respect for persons, an enjoyment of differences, and a robust readiness for dialogue.”
1942-1970
Katharine E. McBride
Katharine E. McBride earned her undergraduate and graduate degrees from Bryn Mawr and brought to the presidency her experience as dean of Radcliffe College. She was a trained neurologist who taught both the education and psychology. McBride led the college through a significant period of expansion -- in the numbers of graduate and undergraduate students, in the number of scholarships and fellowships, and in the size and range of the curriculum. She oversaw the opening of the Child Study Institute and the creation of a lab nursery school. In the 1960s, she supervised new additions to the Park science Center and the construction of the Marriam Coffin Canady Library as well as Erdman and Haffner residential halls. A strong advocate for academic and individual freedom, McBride led the college in its repudiation of McCarthy era loyalty oaths and Vietnam era mandated reporting of student protests. Her love of research in aphasia and adult intelligence informed and enriched her administration, and from her research she internalized what she called "an inclination to ask about every event or kind of behavior, 'What can we learn from this?'"
1922-1942
Marion Edwards Park
Marion Edwards Park was a scholar in the fields of Classics and English who earned her A.B., M.A. and Ph.D. from Bryn Mawr College. She became the third president of Bryn Mawr College after having served as dean at both Simmons College and Radcliffe College. She led efforts to enrich the college’s curriculum, particularly in the areas of the fine arts, history of architecture and arts, and in archeology. Park presided over the college during difficult times for colleges, for the nation, and for the world. The Great Depression, the rise of fascism, and the beginning of World War II provided many challenges, but throughout, Park provided steady, optimistic leadership, joining with other United States institutions of higher learning to employ refugee scholars from European universities. Park initiated a program of cooperation between Bryn Mawr, Haverford, Swarthmore, and the University of Pennsylvania. At the opening of the academic year 1933-34, she said, "The college must educate for a changing world … about which we know only that it will be different from anything of which we have now had experience."
1894-1922
M. Carey Thomas
With a bachelor's degree from Cornell University and a Ph.D. from the prestigious University of Zurich, M. Carey Thomas had served for ten years as Dean of the College and as a Professor of English before becoming the second College president. Thomas was instrumental in creating a European-style curriculum that encouraged original research and advanced study. For over a quarter of a century, President Thomas refined the curriculum and academic programs, oversaw the creation of the Graduate Department of Social Economy and Social Research, and attracted talented scholars to teach and conduct research at Bryn Mawr. She promoted the creation of student scholarships and fellowships and encouraged the creation of the college's Self-Government Association. While Thomas was steadfast in her drive to build a first-rate academic institution, her vision of who should be served by it only included wealthy white women. Her embrace of eugenics and her outspoken racist and antisemitic beliefs caused pain for generations of students, staff, and faculty. The College began to grapple with Thomas' legacy in earnest in the 2010s. In 2023, Thomas' name was removed from its place of prominence above the entrance of the College's Old Library.
1885-1894
James E. Rhoads
Quaker physician and an advocate for the education of newly freed slaves and the promotion of rights for Native Americans, Dr. James E. Rhoads practiced medicine in Germantown after studying at the University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Hospital. He served on Haverford College's board of managers, and this brought him in contact with Joseph Wright Taylor, whose will made provision for a college for women. In accepting a position as a member of Bryn Mawr College’s first Board of Managers in 1880, Rhoads dedicated himself to realizing the vision of a women’s college that provided rigorous education at both undergraduate and graduate levels. As the college’s first president, Rhoads oversaw the selection of dedicated and experienced faculty to teach equally intelligent and committed students. He placed each department in the hands of a specialist, taught Christian Ethics, and supervised the construction of Taylor Hall and the college’s first residence halls. At his memorial service, M. Carey Thomas said about him, "He had no thought for self, but only for the cause he served."