The Board of Directors of the Teagle Foundation has voted unanimously to name Judith Shapiro as President of the Foundation to succeed Richard Morrill beginning July 2013. The Teagle Foundation is a New York-based foundation whose grantmaking is focused on improving undergraduate student learning in the arts and sciences.
Dr. Shapiro was President and Professor of Anthropology of Barnard College from 1994 to 2008. Previously, she was Provost of Bryn Mawr College from 1986 to 1994. She currently is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Barnard.
Walter C. Teagle III, Chair of Teagle’s Board of Directors, commented that “the Teagle Board is excited and enthusiastic to have selected a new leader as dynamic and energetic as Judith. She brings the deep knowledge of higher education, leadership skills and vision to insure that the Foundation will continue its important role in improving student learning. She understands the Foundation’s mission well and will be able to sustain the momentum advanced under Rich Morrill’s leadership.”
Dr. Shapiro has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the Teagle Foundation since 2008. She led the Search Committee during an extensive search for a new president. Dr. Shapiro stepped down when the other members of the Search Committee asked her to be a candidate. Under the leadership of the new Chair, Cornelia Small, the Search Committee voted unanimously to recommend Dr. Shapiro to the Board of Trustees.
Dr. Shapiro received her A.B. from Brandeis University and her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University. She taught in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Chicago from 1970 to 1975. She joined the faculty at Bryn Mawr College in 1975 as a member of the Department of Anthropology, later becoming Chair, and then served as Acting Dean of the College in 1985-86 and Provost from 1986 to 1994. In 1994 she became President of Barnard College where she led the College until 2008. She has served as President of the American Ethnological Society, and is currently on the boards of ITHAKA Harbors, Scholars at Risk, and Friends of the European Humanities University and on the President’s Advisory Council of the University of the People. Dr. Shapiro has done extensive fieldwork in anthropology, on indigenous societies of the Brazilian tropical forest and also on an international congregation of Catholic missionary sisters. She is a member of the American Philosophical Society and in 2002 received the National Institute of Social Sciences Gold Medal Award for her contribution as a leader in higher education for women.
Regarding her appointment, Dr. Shapiro said, “I look forward to working with my colleagues at the Teagle Foundation and in the wider higher education community to seek out the most effective and imaginative approaches to undergraduate liberal arts education in terms both of what students learn and how they learn it, so that their education will contribute both to civic responsibility and personal fulfillment.”
Richard Morrill began his presidency in 2010, and has served on the Foundation’s Board since 1989. His inspired and dynamic leadership has left the Foundation in a strong place. Dr. Morrill will stay active on the Board of the Foundation and continue to serve as a Chancellor at the University of Richmond.