NEW LONDON, Conn. – Katherine Bergeron, dean of the college at Brown University, has been named the 11th president of Connecticut College.
Set to take office on Jan.1, 2014 at the New London, Conn. college, Bergeron, 55, is also a scholar of music history. Connecticut College is a private liberal arts college with 1,850 students and more than 40 majors in the arts, sciences, social sciences and humanities, as well as the option for students to self-design majors.
“Katherine Bergeron is the right leader for this moment in our history,” said Pamela D. Zilly ’75, chair of the Connecticut College Board of Trustees and chair of the Presidential Search Committee. “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.”
As Brown’s chief academic officer for undergraduate education since 2006, Bergeron is credited with leading a renewed focus on the undergraduate experience; strengthening academic and career advising and implementing new programs in community service, science education and internationalization.
Brown University President Christina Paxson and Provost Mark Schlissel told the campus community by letter that Connecticut College’s “inspired choice” will be a loss to Brown but a boon for the New London school.
While championing innovation with “visionary guidance” at Brown, Paxson and Schlissel said, Bergeron ensured “the university has increased in number and quality the opportunities for meaningful faculty/student interactions, increasing the First Year Seminar Program by 50 percent … and expanding faculty participation in advising by 60 percent.”
In 2007-08, Bergeron led the first comprehensive review of the Brown curriculum in 40 years; this work resulted in the creation of new learning goals, new standards for academic concentrations and new opportunities for student-faculty interaction. She also designed and implemented initiatives to recruit and support underrepresented students in the sciences, mathematics and technology.
“I commend the Connecticut College trustees for their wise selection,” added President Emerita of Brown University Ruth J. Simmons. “Katherine’s depth and breadth of experience have prepared her well for the challenges of the college presidency. She is committed to excellence in education and research, has sound judgment and offers a collaborative approach to leadership that is highly effective.”
Bergeron was recruited to join Brown University as a professor of music in 2004 after 11 years as a member of the music faculty at the University of California, Berkeley. She was named chair of the music department in 2005 and, a year later, appointed dean of the college. Earlier in her career, she taught at Tufts University and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Bergeron will succeed Leo I. Higdon Jr., who last year announced his plan to retire in December 2013 after seven years as president. Under his leadership, the college completed a $211 million fundraising campaign, the largest in its history; invested $85 million in campus renewal; constructed a new science center; expanded residential education programs; further internationalized the curriculum; increased financial aid; set new records for faculty and student diversity and celebrated its centennial.
Bergeron is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wesleyan University with a Bachelor of Arts in music. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in musicology at Cornell University.
Bergeron said she was attracted to Connecticut College’s “forward-thinking tradition,” citing the college’s establishment in 1911 to provide education for women who were excluded elsewhere, its successful transition to coeducation in 1969 and its creation in the 1990s of interdisciplinary academic centers. She also noted that Connecticut College has been a leader among liberal arts colleges in integrating theory with practice through its active service programs in the community and its four-year career development program that provides every student the opportunity for a college-funded internship.
“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.”
Throughout her career, Bergeron’s teaching and research have been enlivened by performance. A singer of eclectic tastes, she has performed Gregorian chant, the blues, the court music of central Java, contemporary pop music, experimental music and, most recently, French art song.
“She has proven leadership and the ability to solve complex problems within a system based on collaboration and shared governance,” said Connecticut College Chemistry Professor Stanton Ching, a member of the Presidential Search Committee. “We were impressed with her ability not only to develop good ideas, but also to cultivate creativity in others and work with them to put their ideas into action.”
A native of Old Lyme, Conn., Bergeron has deep roots in eastern Connecticut and long-time ties to Connecticut College. She graduated from Lyme-Old Lyme High School in 1976 and, as a sophomore, began receiving music instruction from Patricia Harper, an adjunct professor of music at Connecticut College since 1975.
Bergeron is married to Joseph Butch Rovan, professor of music and chair of the music department at Brown.
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