JOYCE JACOBSEN

The Hobart and William Smith Colleges board of trustees has named JOYCE JACOBSEN as the schools’ first woman president. Jacobsen is the 29th president of Hobart College and the 18th president of William Smith College. She begins her presidency on July 1. Jacobsen currently serves as provost and senior VP for academic affairs at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. Jacobsen will succeed Patrick McGuire, who has been serving as interim president following the resignation of former president Gregory Vincent. Hobart and William Smith Colleges describe Jacobsen as a “renowned scholar of economics, an award-winning teacher and an experienced administrator.” She has degrees from Harvard University, the London School of Economics, and Stanford University, and more than three decades of experience taking on “increasingly complex roles” in higher education.