Bergeron ’80 is Connecticut College President Elect

Katherine Bergeron ’80, currently dean of the college at Brown University, was elected to be the 11th president of Connecticut College, to take office on Jan. 1, 2014.

A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wesleyan, Bergeron majored in music and earned both master’s and doctoral degrees in musicology at Cornell.

At Brown since 2004, when she joined the faculty as professor of music, she served since 2006 as the university’s chief academic office for undergraduate education. In that capacity, she was noted for strengthening academic and career advising, as well as implementing programs in community service, science education and internationalization. She led the first comprehensive review of the Brown curriculum in four decades, resulting in the creation of new learning goals, as well as initiatives to recruit and support under represented students in mathematics, technology, and the sciences.

Chair of the Connecticut College Board of Trustees and Chair of the Presidential Search Committee Pamela Zilly said Bergeron was “the right leader for this moment in our history.” Zilly added, “She has a tremendous ability to connect ideas and convert them into action. She is a champion of the tradition of education in the liberal arts and sciences, and, at the same time, an experienced and effective administrator with a record of successful innovation.”

In a press release, Bergeron noted Connecticut College’s “forward-thinking tradition” since it was founded in 1911 to educate women elsewhere excluded. “The notions of modern education and broad access to education are written in the DNA of Connecticut College,” she said. “This tradition is so powerful at the current moment, when all institutions of higher education are being asked to create new models for learning and to find new ways to expand access to education.”