Valerie Smith (academic)

Valerie Smith (born February 19, 1956)^[1] is an American academic administrator, professor, and scholar of African-American literature and culture. She is the 15th and current president of Swarthmore College.

Smith is a graduate of Bates College and the University of Virginia. She taught at Princeton University from 1980 to 1989 and at University of California, Los Angeles from 1989 to 2000. In 2000, Smith returned to Princeton as the Woodrow Wilson Professor of Literature and director of the program in African American Studies. From 2006 to 2009, Smith served as the founding director of Princeton's interdisciplinary Center for African American Studies. In July 2011, Princeton’s then-president Shirley Tilghman appointed Smith Dean of the College at Princeton. The dean is the senior administrator responsible for all aspects of Princeton’s undergraduate academic program. As dean, Smith removed numerical targets for the university's grading policy, expanded socioeconomic diversity, created an international residential college exchange program, and created the Office of Undergraduate Research of Princeton University.^[2]

Smith left Princeton after a 24-year tenure to assume the presidency of Swarthmore College in July 2015; she was inaugurated in October. Among her accomplishments as president, Smith has overseen an increase in the College's endowment to $2.72 billion as of the end of fiscal year 2023.^[3] She led the largest comprehensive fundraising campaign in the College’s history, titled Changing Lives, Changing the World. The campaign raised more than $440 million, including more than $110 million for financial aid. Smith has also prioritized Swarthmore’s commitment to environmental sustainability. In 2021, the Board of Managers approved an energy plan, now known as To Zero By Thirty-Five, that will enable Swarthmore to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035.^[4]