October 18, 2011

Contact:   Stacey Schmeidel, 704/682-2629

Davidson, N.C. -- Davidson College today will inaugurate Carol Quillen as the 18th president of Davidson College.

Quillen began working at Davidson on August 1, 2011. Today's inauguration ceremony will take place at 2:30 p.m. in Belk Arena, and will be attended by students, faculty, staff, and delegates from other institutions. Greetings will be offered by representatives from various constituencies, including Anthony Foxx '93, mayor of Charlotte. President Quillen will deliver remarks.

The college will live stream the inauguration beginning at 2:25 p.m. at www.davidson.edu/inauguration. Audio, video and photos will be available after the event, around 5:30 p.m., at www.davidson.edu.

About Carol Quillen
Carol Quillen's appointment to the Davidson presidency was announced on May 26, 2011. Video of the announcement-as well as video clips of an interview with Quillen-are available at http://www3.davidson.edu/cms/x43086.xml.

Before coming to Davidson, Quillen had a long and distinguished career at Rice University in Houston, Texas, where she served most recently as vice president for international and interdisciplinary initiatives. She joined the faculty as an assistant professor of history in 1990, and she earned promotion to associate professor in 1996. From 2004 to 2008, she served as the first director of Rice's Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance, leading development of the center's new mission and shaping an agenda that helped distinguish the center from other organizations.

From 2006 to 2010, Quillen served as Rice's vice provost for academic affairs, focusing particularly on developing initiatives that cross academic schools, faculty diversity and faculty development, and resource development. During this time, she worked with faculty to develop and secure funding for a new Center for Asian Studies and a new Institute for Urban Research. She co-chaired the president's diversity task force, and instituted mentoring programs for junior faculty.

As vice president for international and interdisciplinary initiatives, Quillen was responsible for developing and implementing Rice's overall global strategy, which includes research partnerships, recruiting strategies, curricular revision and international opportunities for students. She also facilitated implementation of university-wide initiatives, including the Institute for Urban Research, Rice 360 (a global health effort), and collaborations with Baylor and other institutions within the Texas Medical Center. She worked closely with the president, provost and other senior leadership on academic, budget, curricular and capital projects planning.

Quillen grew up in New Castle, Del., a small town where she says "it was second nature to support the community and look out for other people." A Presbyterian, she attended Quaker schools from pre-kindergarten through high school. She earned a B.A. degree in American history from the University of Chicago, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with special and general honors, then received a Ph.D. degree in European history from Princeton. A historian whose academic interests include early modern European history, European intellectual history and gender studies, Quillen has written two books on Petrarch, as well as a number of scholarly articles, reviews and papers. She received a number of teaching awards during her tenure at Rice, and also has received grants and fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, the Whiting Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation and the Harvard University Center for Renaissance Studies, among others.

Quillen's daughter, Caitlin, is a first-year student at the University of North Carolina. Quillen's husband, Ken Kennedy--a computer pioneer who founded the computer science program at Rice--died of pancreatic cancer in 2007. "His greatest gift to me, and to the Rice community, was in living the life he would have chosen," Quillen said. "That's something I think about in a very profound way every day."

At Davidson, Quillen succeeds Tom Ross '72, who announced in August 2010 that he would step down to become president of the University of North Carolina system in January 2011.

About Davidson College
Davidson is a highly selective independent liberal arts college for 1,900 students located 20 minutes north of Charlotte in Davidson, N.C. Since its establishment in 1837 by Presbyterians, the college has graduated 23 Rhodes Scholars and is consistently regarded as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country. Through The Davidson Trust, the college became the first liberal arts institution in the nation to replace loans with grants in all financial aid packages, giving all students the opportunity to graduate debt-free. Davidson competes in NCAA athletics at the Division I level, and a longstanding Honor Code is central to student life at the college.
###