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Sarah Susannah Willie-LeBreton is an American sociologist and academic administrator serving as the 12th president of Smith College since 2023. She was previously the provost and dean of faculty at Swarthmore College from 2018 to 2023.

Life

The daughter of sociologist Charles Vert Willie, Willie-LeBreton attended high school in Concord, Massachusetts. She earned a B.A. from Haverford College in 1986. She completed a semester at Spelman College during her undergraduate studies. She earned a M.A. (1988) and Ph.D. (1995) in sociology from Northwestern University. Her dissertation was titled, When We Were Black: The College Experiences of Post-Civil Rights Era African-Americans. Charles M. Payne, Arlene Kaplan Daniels, and Aldon Morris served as her committee members.

Willie-LeBreton taught at Colby College from 1991 to 1995 and Bard College from 1995 to 1997. She served as the coordinator of the Black Studies program for 11 years and chair of the department of sociology and anthropology for 6 years at Swarthmore College. In 2018, she was appointed provost and dean of faculty. On July 1, 2023, Willie-LeBreton became the 12th president of Smith College, succeeding Kathleen McCartney. She was officially inaugurated as president on October 21, 2023. She is the second African American in the role after Ruth Simmons who served from 1995 to 2001.

Selected works

• Willie, Sarah Susannah (2003). Acting Black: College, Identity, and the Performance of Race. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-94409-0.
• Willie-LeBreton, Sarah, ed. (2016). Transforming the Academy: Faculty Perspectives on Diversity and Pedagogy. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-6508-8.

References

1. "Education: Father and Daughter Sociologists". Jet. March 24, 2003. p. 13.
2. ^ MacDougall, Alexander (October 22, 2023). "An emotional welcome: Smith College inaugurates Sarah Willie-LeBreton as its 12th president". Daily Hampshire Gazette. Retrieved 2023-10-22.
3. ^ "Smith College President Sarah Willie-LeBreton". Smith College. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
4. Wong, Lilia (March 25, 2023). "A Talk with Incoming President Sarah Willie-LeBreton". The Sophian. Retrieved 2023-10-27.
5. ^ Willie, Sarah Susannah (June 1995). When We Were Black: The College Experiences of Post-Civil Rights Era African-Americans (Ph.D. thesis). Northwestern University. OCLC 32841320. ProQuest 304250799.
6. Macdougall, Alexander (October 22, 2023). "An emotional welcome: Smith College inaugurates Sarah Willie-LeBreton as its 12th president". The Daily Hampshire Gazette.
7. "The Inauguration of Sarah Willie-LeBreton". Smith College. October 21, 2023.
8. Reviews of Acting Black:
   • Hines, Laurie Moses (2004). "Review". History of Education Quarterly. 44 (2): 329. ISSN 0018-2680. JSTOR 3218304.
   • Jackson, Ronald L. (2004). "Review". Contemporary Sociology. 33 (4): 418–419. doi:10.1177/009430610403300409. ISSN 0094-3061. JSTOR 3593988. S2CID 144743042.

External links

• President Sarah Willie-LeBreton | Smith College

• Living people
• African-American sociologists
• American sociologists
• American women sociologists
• 21st-century American social scientists
• 21st-century American women scientists
• 21st-century African-American scientists
• African-American women academic administrators
• American women academic administrators
• African-American academic administrators
• Heads of universities and colleges in the United States
• Women heads of universities and colleges
• Smith College faculty
• Haverford College alumni
• Northwestern University alumni
• Colby College faculty
• Bard College faculty
• Swarthmore College faculty