Business Excellence Awards 2018
Business leadership: Christina H. Paxson, president, Brown University
Christina H. Paxson, president of Brown University since 2012, knows “you can’t just do what you want to do” when it comes to leading a business or an Ivy League university.
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But you can delegate, she said, “bringing people together to develop a consensus around priorities and plans,” adding she learned some of those leadership tools when she was dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of International and Public Affairs at Princeton before being named Brown’s 19th president.
The additions to and expansion of the university during her tenure have been many and varied, including investing in its College Hill campus and Providence’s Jewelry District, and being an anchor tenant in the $220 million South Street Landing Project.
She also worked with students, faculty and staff to develop “Building on Distinction,” a 10-year strategic plan launched in 2014 to shape the university’s growth and progress.
“That was built around the premise that by targeting investments playing to Brown’s strengths, we can be a greater university with a stronger international reputation and a more impactful presence in society,” Paxson said.
That plan stresses aggressive experimentation in new modes of education that rely on online learning and the use of other digital technologies, which Paxson says is happening at Brown.
“Institutions take differing paths of using online tools, and our approach is still evolving, but we’ve developed a number of executive master’s degree programs and can have students from all over the world getting their degrees,” she said. “We’re also doing more online teaching of Brown students, more courses in edX [an online learning destination and massive open online course, or MMOC provider], a great platform for producing shorter pieces so content can be used for certificate programs.”
Under her leadership, Brown opened a new School of Public Health, launched the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, and is experiencing a renaissance in social sciences in connection with the Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs.
“It’s important for us to be at the forefront of those key issues, because you look at them, public health, the environment and society and so forth, these are the major challenges of our time,” she said, adding that Brown’s School of Public Health and Brown’s Warren Alpert Medical School are addressing the nation’s opioid crisis as well. “And we’re looking at climate change, not by just addressing it but seeing how to protect the environment.”
She also pointed to the creation in 2015 of Brown University’s Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute, which focuses on discovering and applying strategies to improve the lives of children, and not just in Rhode Island.
“The institute’s emphasis is on childhood obesity, autism and asthma, and we’re doing our work in Rhode Island for the benefit of those here,” she said, “but the lessons we draw are global. These issues affect Rhode Island, the country and the world, and we’re very proud to be doing this work.”
Paxson is the second female president of Brown. According to the 2017 American College President Survey, women comprised 30 percent of college presidents in the United States and women of color just 5 percent.
“When I go to Association of American Universities’ meetings, there aren’t many women around,” Paxson said. “It’s disturbing. But look at the pipeline of women in sciences and the environment, social sciences that had been very male-dominated for 30 years, and things are getting better. It’s a matter of time.
“On the other hand,” she added, “You can’t count on time to make it happen. You need a board when looking for a new president to think hard about building pools of diversity. There are a lot of great people out there.”
As to any legacy she’d like to leave at Brown, she said, “I want Brown to be significantly stronger than when I came. We’ve made a lot of progress in six years and hope to keep at the same pace.”
