From the President - For Homepage Use

From the President
Ultrasound image of a human fetus in the third trimester
On Jan. 15, 2010, I lurched out of bed at 7 a.m. and maneuvered my hugely pregnant self to the bathroom. In the dim hallway, I suddenly felt warm wetness on my legs, and saw a puddle forming on our uneven hardwood floor. My water had broken.More
Photo of Jamie Motley
Wellesley’s new Anne Shen Chao ’74 Office of Student Success is focused on the development of the whole person, and this requires collaboration across the entire College.More
A photo portrait of Lauren Holmes '07.
Newhouse Visiting Professor of Creative Writing Lauren Holmes ’07 teaches Writing for Television. The course dissects TV pilots and web series. “I’m looking for the clearest examples of character building, story building, and the story engine,” she says.More
Ilustrated ad from Life magazine in 1941, featuring a square Wellesley Fudge Cake, an older man eating a slice of cake, with the tag line, "Wellesley Fudge Cake made with Baker's Chocolate is a taste you never outgrow!"
Wellesley is well known as an excellent liberal arts college—but also as a decadent chocolate cake.More
The cover of Formidable show a photo of a group of Black and white women at a demontration, led by member of congress Bella Abzug.
In Formidable: American Women and the Fight for Equality, 1920–2020 , Elisabeth Griffith ’69 undertakes the daunting task of documenting a century of women’s activist history in the United States.More
The cover of The Insider: A Life of Virginia C. Gildersleeve features a striking black-and-white portrait of its subject as a young woman.
The Insider: A Life of Virginia C. Gildersleeve , a new biography by Nancy Woloch ’61, takes the life of a little-known, complex, and often obstreperous woman and makes it into a riveting story.More
The cover of Super Sad Black Girl features a close-up of a woman's face in a stylized painting.
Diamond Sharp ’11 knew from a pretty young age that she was going to be a writer. As a senior at Wellesley she began to write some of the poems in this debut volume, much of which deals with Sharp’s coming to terms with, and treating, her mental illness.More
Photo of Laura Wood Cantopher
On the board, we regularly ask ourselves, “Are we spending our time on what matters?” I love this question, because it makes me stop and think, “Are we doing what’s best for Wellesley and our alumnae?”More
Illustration of the word "Engagement" with a starburst above it
As the WCAA headed into the holiday season, we looked back on the many ways that Wellesley alums connected with and supported the College and each other in the preceding year.More
Photo of an unspooled roll of photo negatives
My mom said if she died and the house caught fire, I should go into the basement and save the negatives. The ability to reprint the family photos mattered more than the photos themselves.More
Tributes to Wellesley alumnae by family and friendsMore
A portrait of Michele Moody-Adams '78
In late May 2020, Michele Moody-Adams ’78 went for a walk, hoping to clear her head during a particularly busy season in her life. Instead the Joseph Straus Professor of Political Philosophy and Legal Theory at Columbia, stumbled upon a protest—and the inspiration for her next book.More
A photo portrait of Bronwyn Lance '90
After nearly 20 years in the House and Senate advising lawmakers on policy, strategy, and messaging, Bronwyn Lance ’90 this year became the first woman in the history of North Carolina’s 11th District to be named chief of staff.More
A photo shows Courtney Streett '09 walking in the Edible Ecosystem on the Wellesley campus.
Courtney Streett ’09, a Native American and member of the Nanticoke Tribe, co-founded a nonprofit, the Native Roots Farm Foundation, to reclaim, cultivate, and celebrate Native relationships with the land, plants, and communities for the next Seven Generations.More
Lamiya Mowla ’13
Like many science-inclined students, Lamiya Mowla ’13 arrived at Wellesley intending to become a doctor. But an introductory astronomy lesson altered her ambitions—and the course of her life.More
Photo of Janet McDonald Hill ’69
“I am saddened to hear of the passing of Janet McDonald Hill ’69 (‘In Memoriam,’ fall 2022) and deeply grateful for the legacy she leaves on the Wellesley community at large and the Black Wellesley community specifically.”More