Incoming William & Mary President Katherine Rowe was introduced to the college’s community Tuesday and shared a message of innovation and inclusion.
Rowe was announced as the school’s 28th president Tuesday morning and will take over for President W. Taylor Reveley III this summer.
She thanked Reveley for his 10 years of service and said the college will continue to benefit from his leadership for decades to come.
As for the upcoming decades, Rowe said the college is positioned for continued success because it has a combination of characteristics that few other institutions of higher learning possess.
What drew Rowe to the college, she said, was the integration of its liberal arts curriculum and professional education, its student athletes who excel on and off the field, its long history and commitment to innovation.
“That so many different qualities, rarely found together, are combined at William & Mary is a particular strength now,” Rowe said. “As we prepare our students to live as citizens and professionals in the 21st century, those lives will require them to be adaptable and resilient to change, to value different modes of being in community and at work.”
As a renaissance scholar, entrepreneur, teacher, student and competitive athlete and coach, Rowe said she found William & Mary alluring because she considers herself a hybrid.
Rowe is a Shakespearean scholar, but she also is well-versed in technology. Rowe co-founded Luminary Digital Media, which has “reimagined” books with interactive reading apps that focus on classic Shakespearean literature.
In a year of milestones for the college, including the 325th anniversary of the royal charter and the 50th anniversary of the admittance of the first African American students, Rowe focused on the school’s transformations – both over the past four centuries and into the future.
“My scholarship, and the leadership roles that have brought me to this moment, have been dedicated to the idea that sustained, thoughtful innovation is necessary for advancing the core values of the liberal arts,” Rowe said. “So I feel a deep connection to William & Mary’s history of intentional, mission-driven transformation.”
An ongoing transformation Rowe emphasized was its commitment to diversity and creating opportunities for everyone, regardless of background. She said a collegiate community that “is rich in diverse persons, viewpoints, experiences and modes of knowledge-making,” provides the best path to preparing its students for professional life.
Under her leadership, Rowe said the college will “redress inequity,” embrace differences, and promote the idea that diversity and inclusion promote innovations
“I’m here today because the more that I have come to know William & Mary, the more I feel I have found my people,” Rowe said. “And I recognize in this community the unique strengths that meet in unexpected ways.”
“Those meetings, those combinations are going to guarantee our success together in the decades to come.”
