Lynn Pasquerella was appointed president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 2016, after serving as the eighteenth president of Mount Holyoke College from 2010-2016. Pasquerella was the provost at the University of Hartford from 2008 to 2010, and she was the Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Rhode Island, where she began her career as an ethics professor in 1985. 

A philosopher whose work has combined teaching and scholarship with local and global engagement, Pasquerella is committed to championing liberal education, access to excellence in higher education, and civic engagement. She has written extensively on medical ethics, metaphysics, public policy, and the philosophy of law and is the host of Northeast Public Radio’s The Academic Minute. Pasquerella is a member of the advisory Board of the Newman’s Own Foundation, sits on the boards of the Lingnan Foundation and the National Humanities Alliance and is a senator and vice-president of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. 

Pasquerella is a graduate of Quinebaug Valley Community College, Mount Holyoke College, and Brown University. In addition, she has received honorary doctorates from Elizabethtown University and Bishop’s University.