E-mail a friendOctober 29, 2009
Dr. Ruth Simmons, president of Brown University—and the first African American to helm an Ivy League school—shares her personal educational odyssey and discusses changing leadership for women and the relevance of HBCUs.
Dr. Ruth Simmons
Dr. Ruth Simmons
Pioneering university president compares challenges to success for African American women versus men. (3:14)
Full Interview (24:10)
Dr. Ruth Simmons is Brown University's first female leader and the first Black president of an Ivy League institution. She was previously the first African American woman president of Smith College, where her accomplishments included launching the first engineering program at an American women's college. The Texas native graduated from Dillard and earned her Ph.D. at Harvard. Simmons has been a French professor and held administrative posts at the University of Southern California, Princeton and Spelman College.
