OFE News Release
Brown University President Ruth Simmons to Speak at State Academic Awards Banquet
April 20, 2007
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Brown University President Ruth Simmons, the first African American and first woman to serve as president of an Ivy League institution, will be the keynote speaker for the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence’s 21st annual Academic Awards Banquet, scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Saturday, May 19, at Oklahoma City’s Cox Convention Center, 1 Myriad Gardens.
The gala event honors 100 of Oklahoma’s top public high school seniors as Academic All-Staters and presents Oklahoma Medal for Excellence Awards to four outstanding educators and an alternative education program.
Simmons was sworn in as the 18th president of Brown University on July 3, 2001. Under her leadership, Brown is making new investments to secure its standing as one of the world’s finest research universities.
A French professor before entering university administration, President Simmons also holds an appointment as a professor of comparative literature and of Africana studies at Brown. A native of Texas, she graduated from Dillard University in New Orleans before completing her doctoral degree in Romance languages and literatures at Harvard. She served in various administrative roles at the University of Southern California, Princeton University, and Spelman College before becoming president of Smith College, the largest women’s college in the United States. At Smith, she launched a number of initiatives including an engineering program, the first at an American women’s college.
Simmons is the recipient of many honors, including a Fulbright Fellowship, the 2001 President’s Award from the United Negro College Fund, the 2002 Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, and the 2004 Eleanor Roosevelt Val-Kill Medal. In 2001, Time Magazine named Simmons America’s best college president. She was selected as a Newsweek “Person to Watch” and as Ms. Magazine’s Woman of the Year in 2002. Simmons also serves on a number of corporate boards, including Pfizer Inc., Texas Instruments, and The Goldman Sachs Group, and has been awarded numerous honorary degrees.
In recent years, Simmons has written and delivered papers or presentations on a wide array of educational and public policy issues, including institutional governance, foreign language study, diversity, liberal arts, science education, leadership, and women in higher education. Among numerous educational institutions and national forums, she has been a featured speaker at the White House, the World Economic Forum, the National Press Club, the Association of American Universities, and the American Council on Education. In September 2001, ABC News tapped her to serve as a respondent during its live telecast following President Bush’s address to Congress.
During her tenure at Brown University, Simmons has created an ambitious set of initiatives designed to expand and strengthen the faculty; increase financial support and resources for undergraduate, graduate, and medical students; improve facilities; renew a broad commitment to shared governance; and ensure that diversity informs every dimension of the university. These initiatives have led to a major investment of new resources in Brown’s educational mission.
As an academic leader, Simmons believes in the power of education to transform lives. She champions the university as a haven of reasoned debate with the responsibility to challenge students intellectually and prepare them to become informed, conscientious citizens. She has spent her career advocating for a leadership role for higher education in the arena of national and global affairs.