Comments from Others

“Lynn Pasquerella is a powerful intellectual force, a dynamic and compassionate leader, and a charismatic and wonderful human being. I am as fond of her as anyone I have ever worked with, and our whole community will be devastated that she is leaving after only a year and a half as provost. But we are all so very proud of her. In the vocabulary of her favorite sport (and mine), Mount Holyoke has hit a home run!”

Walter Harrison
President, University of Hartford

“Lynn represents the ideal of a Mount Holyoke education. She embodies academic excellence, leadership, and a deep-seated commitment to the liberal arts and educational access. She is in the vanguard of a new generation of academic leaders who are taking the helm at a time of great challenge and opportunity for top liberal arts colleges. For Mount Holyoke, she is the perfect choice to lead us as we expand our presence on a global stage.”

Leslie Anne Miller ’73
Chair, Mount Holyoke Board of Trustees

“Lynn Pasquerella’s ‘homecoming’ to Mount Holyoke is something I cannot help but celebrate. The college shaped her commitment to women's education when she was an undergraduate, and now she returns to lead the college in shaping the future of women's education. Creating women leaders for the world, and creating a better world for women, is a mission Lynn has embraced and advanced at the University of Hartford, and it is a mission we are proud to share with Mount Holyoke. As keepers of the legacy of Hartford College for Women, an institution that grew out of 'Mount Holyoke in Hartford' (a Depression-era experiment providing educational access to women in Hartford), the University of Hartford and Mount Holyoke share a past. Lynn Pasquerella's presidency is the promise of a shared future.”

“It has been my great pleasure and privilege to work closely with Lynn. She is the most principled, authentic leader I know, and I believe there could be no finer role model for the students, staff, faculty, and alumnae of Mount Holyoke. To let her go will not be easy, but it could not be more right.”

Jennifer Sanborn
Director, The Women’s Education and Leadership Fund,
a legacy of Hartford College for Women
University of Hartford

“Philosophers dearly love their binaries, the energy of opposing points pitching camp on the same patch of thought. Thus do we juxtapose choices: Material substance or mental? Disjunction of not-p and p? Life of thought or of action?”

“Even so, such binaries fade in triadic transcendence when thinking of Lynn Pasquerella. Resisting reduction, she serves both thought and action, inhabiting with equal fluency the languages of abstruse metaphysics and social advocacy. In her the binaries resolve as an emergent ethic: neither remotely theoretical nor thoughtlessly practical, Lynn's reflective form of leadership seeks and inspires consensus toward change by the light of tradition. How fitting, then, that she returns now to the place of her journey's commencement, her intellectual home.”

Cheryl Foster
Professor of Philosophy, University of Rhode Island

“From a student's perspective, I strongly believe that Lynn Pasquerella will be a fantastic role model for the 2,200 students at our institution. She grew up in a household without any books and she still managed to become a distinguished academic with a very successful career. To me she is proof that sheer determination and a willingness to learn can change your life. She is truly inspiring, and I am looking forward to welcoming her to Mount Holyoke as our eighteenth president.”

Katherine Indira Duceman ’11

“In looking back over my notes from the beginning of this search process last spring, I see that Lynn was of interest to me from the start. It was at our first meeting with her that I saw the qualities of authenticity and integrity that have become ever more apparent and that convinced me that she is exactly the sort of person who should next lead Mount Holyoke and, important for me, that she is the person whom I can introduce to my faculty colleagues with complete confidence, conviction, and excitement.”

Robin Blaetz
Associate Professor, Film Studies Program
Mount Holyoke College

“Lynn is, in essence, everything that is Mount Holyoke: At her core, she is a brilliant thinker and academic, a deeply compassionate human being, and an inspiring visionary with a stunning ability to lead. In short, she is exactly what Mount Holyoke women aspire to be. I am absolutely thrilled for my college; for me personally, it will be a pleasure to introduce her to the student body.”

Katherine Boyles ’12