Joanne V. Creighton

President of the College
A teacher, literary scholar, and experienced academic administrator known for her expertise in strategic planning and implementation, Joanne V. Creighton assumed the presidency of Mount Holyoke College on January 1, 1996.

During her first 18 months as president, Ms. Creighton led a comprehensive and highly consultative planning process that culminated in unanimous faculty and board of trustees endorsements of The Plan for Mount Holyoke 2003. Upon its completion, Ms. Creighton initiated The Plan for 2010. Both plans have been extraordinarily successful in engendering the renewed strength and vitality of the College.

Prior to coming to Mount Holyoke, Ms. Creighton served at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, as vice president for academic affairs and provost and professor of English from 1990 to 1994, and as Wesleyan's interim president from 1994 to 1995. Ms. Creighton is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison and holds a master of arts in teaching from Harvard University and a doctoral degree in English literature from the University of Michigan. A member of the faculty at Wayne State University from 1968 to 1985, Ms. Creighton began her administrative career there in the early 1980s, leaving in 1985 to become dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

The author of four books, Ms. Creighton has concentrated much of her scholarly work and teaching on the authors William Faulkner, Margaret Drabble, and Joyce Carol Oates. Her books are William Faulkner's Craft of Revision (1977), Joyce Carol Oates (1979), Margaret Drabble (1985), and Joyce Carol Oates: Novels of the Middle Years (1992). The author of numerous scholarly articles and reviews, she is a frequent commentator on contemporary literature and issues affecting higher education.