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New President Named at Hobart and William Smith Colleges

HWS President Dr. Joyce Jacobsen
Hobart and William Smith Colleges

It was an historic day on the campus of Hobart and William Smith Friday afternoon as Chair of the Board of Trustees Thomas Bozzuto announced the new president of the Colleges.

“Dr. Joyce Jacobsen has the vision, fortitude, experience and character to lead Hobart and William Smith to a new level of excellence. When she assumes the presidency on July 1st, she will be the first woman in the history of the colleges to hold that role.”

Joyce Jacobsen currently serves as the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. She is an economist with degrees from Harvard, the London School of Economics, and Stanford University.
 
In her own remarks Jacobsen said the appointment is particularly meaningful for her as she recalled trips to the library as a child.
 
“I read through the whole shelf of all the biographies in the children’s section of the library. One that I really read over and over again was one of my heroines growing up, Elizabeth Blackwell. And, the idea that Elizabeth Blackwell went here to Geneva Medical College, the precursor of Hobart and became the first woman physician and that I am basically in some sense following in her footsteps now by becoming the first woman president is very deeply meaningful to me.”
 
Jacobsen is the 29th President of Hobart College and the 18th of William Smith College. 

Kelly Walker started his public radio career at WBAA in West Lafayette, Indiana in 1985 and has spent some time in just about every role public broadcasting has to offer. He has spent substantive time in programming and development at KWMU in St. Louis, WFIU in Bloomington, Indiana, and Troy Public Radio in Alabama before his arrival in Geneva, New York. In addition, his work has been heard on many other public radio stations as well as NPR. Kelly also produces The Sundilla Radio Hour, which airs Sundays at 1 p.m. on Finger Lakes Public Radio and is distributed to public radio stations all over the country through PRX.