Ruth J. Simmons is the 18th president of Brown University and first black president of an Ivy League institution. Her students often affectionately refer to her by her first name.

Simmons holds appointments as a professor in the Departments of Comparative Literature and Africana Studies. In 2002, Newsweek selected her as a Ms. Woman of the Year, while in 2001, Time named her as America's best college president. She is a native of Texas, graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans, and got her doctorate in Romance Literature from Harvard University. She was a professor of Romance Languages and became a dean at Princeton University, president of Smith College, and ultimately president of Brown.

Simmons started the engineering program at Smith. At Brown, she has launched an ambitious $1.4 billion initiative known as the Campaign for Academic Enrichment in order to enhance Brown’s academic programs.

Simmons also serves on the boards of Texas Instruments, Pfizer Inc., and Goldman Sachs.

External links

• Brown site

American university presidents | Brown University faculty | Brown University | Brown University presidents | Smith College