Jean A. Dowdall (1993-1995)

Portrait of Jean Dowdall, c. 1993. 

Jean A. Dowdall, born 1942, received her B.A. in Anthropology and her Ph.D. in Sociology, both from Brown University. After a university career that culminated in seven years as Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the College at Beaver College in Pennsylvania, Dowdall joined Simmons in 1993 as the first woman to serve as president of the College. 

During her short tenure, Jean Dowdall worked to develop a strategic plan that both built on and modernized the vision laid out by John Simmons in 1870. The plan not only affirmed Simmons' committment to life-long learning, but also created room for the development of a more comprehensive and integrated curriculum that would support a diverse and inclusive educational community. In her inaugural address in November 1993, Dowdall summarized Simmons' mission: 

We must challenge students to aspire to their highest levels of academic achievement, and empower them to seek professional success, as they define it, in whatever careers they choose. We must expand students' awareness of the cultural worlds that surround them but that can easily be rendered invisible by the dominance of Western culture. We must enrich students' lives through opportunities to experience the arts, and through opportunities to be of service to the community that surrounds us... We must provide all students with a campus life that is so varied and energetic and diverse that it is an education in itself.