News

This summer, as Wellesley closes out its 150th anniversary and the United States celebrates its 250th, Katharine Lee Bates 1880 stands as an exemplary scholar, activist, feminist, global citizen, community builder, and person unafraid to be herself.

Ruth J. Simmons’s experience as a Guest Junior at Wellesley helped shape the trajectory of her distinguished career, which has included her roles as the first Black president of Smith College; the first Black president of an Ivy League school, when she took on that role at Brown University; and the first female president of Prairie View A&M University.