Diana Chapman Walsh  
President, Wellesley College

Diana Chapman Walsh is the twelfth President of Wellesley College, a position she assumed on October 1, 1993. She is the fourth alumna to head Wellesley, the nation’s leading college for women. During her tenure, the college has undertaken a number of new initiatives, including a revision of the curriculum and expanded programs in global education, experiential and service learning, and technology-assisted teaching and learning.

Other important innovations during this period include the opening of the Davis Museum and Cultural Center, the establishment of the Religious and Spiritual Life Program, the construction of the Knapp Media and Technology Center and the Knapp Social Science Center, the creation of the annual Ruhlman and Tanner Conferences on student research and learning, restoration of the campus landscape, construction of a new campus center, and other initiatives designed to strengthen the quality of campus intellectual life.

During Walsh’s tenure, the management of the endowment has been strengthened, as have many of the college’s administrative structures. In 2000-2001, Wellesley marked its 125th anniversary, and launched a five-year comprehensive fundraising campaign to support the institution's major priorities, including increased endowment for financial aid and strengthening of Wellesley’s academic programs. When The Wellesley Campaign ended in June 2005, the College had set a record for fundraising by a liberal arts college, with gifts and pledges totaling $472.3 million.

Before assuming the Wellesley presidency, President Walsh was Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor at the Harvard School of Public Health, where she chaired the Department of Health and Social Behavior. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty, she was at Boston University, as a University Professor, and Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the School of Public Health.

President Walsh is a 1966 graduate of Wellesley College, where she majored in English. At Boston University, she earned an M.S. degree in journalism (1971) and a Ph.D. in health policy from the University Professors Program (1983). In 1994, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Boston University. She received the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, from Deree College, the post-secondary division of The American College of Greece, in June 1995, from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in May 1999, and from Northeastern University in 2003. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

As a Kellogg National Fellow from 1987 to 1990, President Walsh traveled throughout the United States and abroad studying workplace democracy and principles of leadership, and writing poetry. She has written, edited and co-edited numerous articles and fourteen books, including a study of the practice of medicine within corporations, titled Corporate Physicians: Between Medicine and Management, Yale University Press, 1987. President Walsh is a co-editor of Society and Health, Oxford University Press, 1995, an analysis of social and cultural determinants of health and illness. President Walsh currently serves on the boards of Amherst College, the State Street Corporation and the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, of which she served as chair for the 2003-2004 academic year.

Diana Chapman Walsh was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and graduated from the Springside School in Chestnut Hill. Her husband, Christopher T. Walsh, is the Hamilton Kuhn Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Biological Chemistry at the Harvard Medical School. Their daughter, Allison Walsh Kurian, is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School and a practicing physician in California.

Articles by Diana Chapman Walsh: (3)