WELLESLEY, Mass.—Wellesley College President Paula A. Johnson and Provost Courtney Coile have announced the appointment of Laura Mamo, Ph.D., as the next executive director of the Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW), one of the nation’s largest research institutes focused on women. Mamo, currently the director and a professor of public health at the Health Equity Institute at San Francisco State University, will join the College in September.
As the Katherine Stone Kaufmann ’67 Executive Director, Mamo will play a key leadership role in advancing WCW’s core mission: to drive meaningful progress for women and girls through research and action.
Mamo is a distinguished scholar whose work lies at the intersection of medical sociology, feminist science and technology studies, women’s health, and society. She will build upon the centers’ 50-year legacy of propelling social change through rigorous research and scholarship to lead WCW into its next era.
“Laura is an outstanding scholar and an institution builder with a proven track record of establishing partnerships and programs that enable interdisciplinary, community-based, policy-relevant research,” said Coile, who is also Lia Gelin Poorvu ’56 Dean of the College and Stanford Calderwood Professor of Economics. “Her scholarship and her ability to mentor and support researchers in all career stages, combined with her targeted advocacy work, make her the ideal strategic leader for this role.”
Mamo is the author of books on reproductive technology and on the HPV vaccine, published by the Duke University and University of Chicago presses, respectively, as well as dozens of academic articles. She has received prestigious funding for her research from the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Mamo earned her Ph.D. in sociology from the University of California, San Francisco, and her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Wellesley Centers for Women is part of the Susan L. Wagner ’82 Centers for Wellesley in the World. Founded in 2024 as a hub for globally focused engagement at Wellesley College, the Wagner Centers’ mission is to be a convener and a catalyst for positive change on some of the most important issues the world faces today.
“I’m excited to build on WCW’s work and continue contributing theoretically grounded, empirical research that can drive solutions for women, gender equity, and communities,” said Mamo. “I can think of no better place to be than alongside my colleagues at WCW, and I look forward to all that we will accomplish together.”
About the Wellesley Centers for Women
The Wellesley Centers for Women (WCW) is the largest academic research and action institute in the United States that is focused on women and gender.
About Wellesley College
Located in Wellesley, Mass., Wellesley College is a private, highly selective women’s liberal arts college founded in 1870. The College is dedicated to providing an exceptional education for women to prepare them to make a difference in the world.