Laura Skandera Trombley

Laura Skandera Trombley is the eighth president of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California, and first woman president of the organization.^[1]

Early life and education

Born as Laura Elise Skandera to an elementary school principal and second-grade teacher, she enrolled in Pepperdine University at the age of 16 and earned a B.A. in English and graduated summa cum laude with a master's in English. From 1985 to 1988 she was a research associate in the American Studies department at the Universitaet Eichstaett in Germany.^[2] She received her PhD in English from the University of Southern California and during her studies received the Virginia Barbara Middleton Scholarship and English Graduate Student scholarship, as well as being the Lester and Irene Finkelstein Fellow.^[3] In 2002, Pepperdine recognized Skandera Trombley with the Distinguished Alumna Award^[4] and awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2013.^[5]

Career

After the completion of her PhD, Skandera Trombley accepted a teaching position at the State University of New York in Potsdam where she earned tenure in three years as an associate professor of English.^[6] Skandera Trombley also served in other administrative roles at Potsdam including assistant provost.^[2] In 1997, she assumed the post of vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty, the first woman to hold that title, at Coe College, a private liberal arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.^[7][8] She was named President of Pitzer College at age 40.^[8]

The Huntington Library

Skandera Trombley assumed Presidency of The Huntington in July 2015. The Huntington is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington and located in San Marino, California. The library houses 9 million manuscripts and over 400,000 rare books,^[9] among them one of 12 Gutenberg Bibles,^[10] Ben Franklin's Autobiography manuscript, Langston Hughes' papers, the Ellesmere manuscript of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,^[11] Henry David Thoreau's manuscript of Walden, and Mark Twain's The Prince and the Pauper manuscript. Under her tenure The Huntington is working to establish sustainability and water conservation efforts, and has signed an agreement with the University of California at Riverside to subsidize the hiring of two assistant professors who will do research full-time in The Huntington's collection of documents.^[9]

Pitzer College

Skandera Trombley was inaugurated as president of Pitzer College in February 2003, the same year that the college celebrated its 40th anniversary. In her first year in office, she made the SAT optional as a criteria for admission to the college.^[12]

During Skandera Trombley's presidency, Pitzer founded several new collegiate centers and majors. Most notably, the college launched the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability.^[13] Other initiatives developed during Skandera Trombley's tenure include the Firestone Center for Restoration Ecology in Costa Rica^[14] and the Vaccine Development Institute's partnership with the University of Botswana.^[15] In 2011, under Skandera Trombley, Pitzer became the first college in the country to offer a degree in secular studies.^[16]

In the thirteen years she led the college, the admission acceptance rate improved from 56 percent to 11 percent, and the college moved up 35 places in the U.S. News & World Report rankings: No. 70 in 2004 to No. 35 in 2014.^[17] In 2012, Pitzer was named the 20th most selective higher education institution in the country by Business Insider.^[18] During her tenure, Pitzer had the most Fulbright Fellowships of any college/university per 1000 students and for the fifth consecutive year, The Chronicle of Higher Education named Pitzer College as the top producer of student Fulbright Fellows among all US colleges.^[19]

Additionally, she grew the annual endowment fund from $42 million in 2003 to $133 million in 2014,^[20][21] raised the lowest worker compensation to 10 percent above the living wage for Los Angeles County, and retained all faculty and staff positions during the 2008 recession. Skandera Trombley completed three fundraising campaigns totaling over $110 million dollars,^[22] and established endowments: the John Skandera student financial aid fund for first generation students, the Laura Skandera Trombley endowment and the Laura Skandera Trombley Humanities and Arts Endowed Research and Internship Fund.^[23][24] Since the beginning of her presidency, the College's annual fund increased by 80 percent and the endowment over 195 percent.^[8][21][22]

Writings

Skandera Trombley gives frequent commentary about the humanities and higher education. She has authored five books, some of which are about her scholarly interest Mark Twain, including Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years,^[25] and Mark Twain in the Company of Women. She was also the co-editor with Michael Kiskis on Constructing Mark Twain: New Directions in Scholarship^[26] and she was featured in the 2002 Ken Burns documentary titled, Mark Twain.^[27] In addition, she is the editor of Critical Essays on Maxine Hong Kingston^[28] and co-author of Epistemology: Turning Points in the History of Poetic Knowledge. She has published op-ed pieces in the Chronicle of Higher Education^[29] about the challenges faced by women in higher education administrations and has published dozens of scholarly articles. She is a regular blogger on social media sites, The Huffington Post^[30] and The Daily Beast,^[31] and she has also presented and been a moderator at TEDxFulbright.^[32]

Other activity

Skandera Trombley is active in Los Angeles and national organizations including the Council on Foreign Relations Higher Education Working group on global Issues,^[33] the Chronicle of Higher Education/New York Times Higher Education Cabinet and the Council of Presidents of the Association of Governing Boards.^[34] In December 2012, President Barack Obama named Skandera Trombley to the 12-member J. William Fulbright Commission that was established by the US Congress to supervise the global Fulbright Fellows program.^[34] In 2014 she served as vice-chair of the commission, and on November 12, 2015, the board elected Skandera Trombley as chair.^[35]

References