PVAMU PRESIDENT TO JOIN RICE UNIVERSITY

  

Outgoing Prairie View A&M University President Ruth J. Simmons will join Rice University as a President’s Distinguished Fellow.

Rice University’s announcement comes after Simmons said last week that she would step down as PVAMU president at the end of February, after originally planning to do so at the start of June.  She plans to start her new role April 1^st.

The university said Simmons, who is a Rice trustee emerita after serving on the board from 2014 to 2018, will work with a variety of programs across campus and advise the president’s office on various matters.  She will also collaborate with faculty and staff to build out programs for students to develop future leaders at Rice. 

Simmons is the president emerita of Brown University and Smith College.  She is a former director of African American studies at Princeton University and past chair of the Harvard University Visiting Committee for African-American Studies, and also led the Slavery and Justice Initiative at Brown.  She will provide input on the development of Rice’s Center for African and African American Studies.

Rice President Reginald DesRoches said Simmons “brings with her a myriad of insights from her career as a faculty member, university president and national leader in higher education.”