Lynn Pasquerella, president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), speaks at 11 a.m. Saturday, May 20, at Elizabethtown College’s 114th Commencement.
A graduate of Quinebaug Valley Community College, Mount Holyoke College and Brown University, Pasquerella has demonstrated an abiding commitment to making certain all students have access to excellence in liberal education, regardless of socioeconomic background.
Prior to joining AAC&U last year, Pasquerella was president of her alma mater, Mount Holyoke College, a liberal arts institution renowned for educating women leaders.
In her teens, while doing piecework at a light switch factory in Connecticut, Pasquerella learned how women’s leadership can empower the most vulnerable members of a community. She continued working at the factory almost full time while attending Quinebaug Valley as a first-generation college student. She went on to earn her doctoral degree in philosophy under a full fellowship from Brown University.
In 1985, Pasquerella joined the faculty at University of Rhode Island. At URI she became vice provost for research, vice provost for academic affairs and dean of the graduate school.
She was named provost of the University of Hartford in 2008 and, in 2010, was appointed as 18th president of Mount Holyoke.
Elizabethtown College’s traditional Commencement takes place in The Dell, 1 Alpha Drive, where Pasquerella will receive her first-ever honorary doctoral degree.
Speaker for the College’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies at the Edward R. Murphy Center (SCPS) Commencement is James L. Fritz, Esq. ’84, an alum of the School’s program, a trustee of Elizabethtown College and a retired attorney. The SCPS Commencement takes place at 4 p.m. Saturday, May 20, in Leffler Chapel and Performance Center.