Dear Members of the Brown Community,

We write to share news that the Board of Trustees of Connecticut College today voted to appoint Katherine Bergeron, currently dean of the College at Brown, as their 11th president, effective January 1, 2014. Connecticut College has made an inspired choice in this selection, and we know that members of the Brown community will join us in congratulating Katherine on this notable achievement. While we will be very sorry to see Katherine depart at the end of the fall semester, we are grateful for her many significant contributions over the past decade.

Katherine is an accomplished scholar and skilled administrator. A professor of musicology, she was recruited from the University of California–Berkeley to Brown in 2004. In 2005, she served as a highly effective chair of the Department of Music, and in 2006 she was appointed dean of the College, a position in which she has excelled. Under Katherine’s leadership, the University renewed its focus on enhancing the undergraduate experience, affirming the value of Brown's unique open curriculum for the 21st century, strengthening academic and career advising, integrating service opportunities, and bolstering science education and international offerings and opportunities for students.

Katherine has chaired a number of committees that have been instrumental in building consensus and advancing progress on a range of key areas. In 2007-2008, she led the Task Force on Undergraduate Education—the first comprehensive review of the Brown curriculum since 1989—which led to the development of the goals for liberal learning, new standards for academic concentrations and new academic advising programs. Through her visionary guidance, the University has increased in number and quality the opportunities for meaningful faculty/student interactions, increasing the First Year Seminar Program by 50 percent, creating the “First Readings” program, and expanding faculty participation in advising by 60 percent.

Katherine has championed Brown’s signature commitment to innovation in education. She oversaw the creation of the Science Center, created the Catalyst program to support underrepresented students in the sciences, and was largely responsible for the recent award from the American Association of Universities for the development of new approaches to STEM education. She helped launch the TRI-Lab program, which brings faculty, students and working professionals together to engage in collective research and problem-solving to address pressing social issues. Katherine has also provided valuable strategic direction in Brown’s early experiments with online education, which has led to Brown’s participation in Coursera. Throughout her work in the senior administration,

Katherine has remained engaged in teaching and scholarship. Her book, Voice Lessons (Oxford 2010), won the Deems Taylor Award in 2011, and the Otto Kinkeldy Award from the American Musicological Society. Katherine has been an exceptional teacher, administrator, colleague and friend to many on campus. This fall, the provost will chair a search to identify her successor. We will also have an opportunity to gather later this semester to thank Katherine for her service to Brown. For now, we would like to express deep gratitude to Katherine, and we wish her and her family best wishes for continued success.

Sincerely,

Christina Paxson, President

Mark Schlissel, Provost