Janet L. Holmgren

Janet L. Holmgren was appointed President and Susan Mills Professor of Mills College (Oakland, CA) in 1991 and ended her 20 year tenure as president on June 30, 2011. She continues as a tenured member of the faculty as Susan Mills Professor of English. Prior to her appointment at Mills, President Holmgren served as Vice Provost of Princeton University, Senior Administrator at the University of Maryland, College Park, and faculty member at Maryland and the University of the District of Columbia.

In addition to her administrative and academic institutional leadership, Dr. Holmgren is deeply involved in leadership and Board development at the national and local levels through her volunteer work with numerous educational and nonprofit organizations. She serves currently on the Boards of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the National Council for Research on Women, and the City of Oakland Education Cabinet. She recently completed a four year term on the Princeton University Board of Trustees where she chaired the Academic Affairs Committee and served on the Executive Committee and special committee on Board Development. She also just completed a fifteen year term on the Executive Committee of the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities and recently chaired the search for a new president of this organization.

Dr. Holmgren has served as chair of the Boards of the American Council on Education, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, the National Council for Research on Women, the Executive Committee of the Women’s College Coalition, and the California statewide Governance Task Force for the Revision of the Master Plan for pre-K through 16 Master Plan for Education and as a member of numerous other boards. She co-founded the Oakland Education Cabinet in 1997 with then Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris and re-established this working group of leaders in the public and private educational sectors with current Mayor Jean Quan and School Superintendent Tony Smith.

Dr. Holmgren has received numerous recognitions for her work in education and community activism, including: Honorary Degrees, Mills College, 2011, Golden Gate University, 1995, and Mount Vernon College, 1992;  Smart Woman Award, Girls, Inc. of the Bay Area, 2010; CEO of the Year, CASE Western Region for the Advancement of Higher Education, 2007; Award for Excellence in Education, California National Organization for Women, 2002; Donna Shavlik Leadership Award for Lifetime Service, Office of Women in Higher Education, American Council on Education, 2001; Hall of Fame, Hinsdale High School (Illinois), 1998; Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award, Oakland University, 1996; Outstanding Woman Administrator, University of Maryland, 1988.

She is a writer and national speaker on a variety of educational, leadership, political and academic topics, authoring numerous pieces in publications such as the San Francisco Chronicle, Bay Area Businesswoman, San Jose Mercury News, and Chronicle of Higher Education, and professional journals on: Education as a Public Priority; The GI Bill and the Impact for Higher Education; Women’s Leadership; Federal funding and financial aid; the UN/NGO Forum and Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing; the impact of women voters; college as the key to women’s power; how to teach our daughters well; urban school reform; Supreme Court nominations; women in science; women in philanthropy.

She is also the author of two scholarly books: The Story of English: Study Guide and Reader, co-authored with Spencer Cosmos (Kendall-Hunt), and Narration and Discourse in American Realistic Fiction (University of Pennsylvania Press).

Dr. Holmgren is a third generation Chicagoan, attending Hinsdale High School and then staying in the Midwest to attend Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, graduating summa cum laude. She holds her Master of Arts and Ph.D. from Princeton University. She lives in Oakland, CA.

jlh@agbsearch.com