Paula A. Johnson is the fourteenth president of Wellesley and the first Black president of Wellesley College. Since July 2016, her efforts have gone into the college's mission to educate the world, create new opportunities, challenge assumptions, and embrace differences. As a cardiologist, researcher, and expert in public health and health policy, President Johnson has devoted her career to transforming the health and well-being of the communities. She was also the founding executive director of the Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology, chief of the Division of Women’s Health at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research has focused on understanding the difference in how disease is expressed for different genders and its implications on health policy.[2]
H. Kim Bottomly, inaugurated 2007
H. Kim Bottomly is the thirteenth president of Wellesley College, and she was the first scientist to be the president of the college. During her time at Wellesley, she restructured the college's finances after the 2008 recession, and the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs was created. Under her leadership, she began collaborative efforts with Olin College and Babson College. Other efforts she pushed for were to renovate and maintain the upkeep of the historic buildings on campus.
Diana Chapman Walsh '66, 1993-2007
Diana Chapman Walsh was the 12th president of Wellesley and the fourth alumna to head the college. An English major at Wellesley, she went on to earn a master’s degree in Journalism and a Ph.D. in health policy from Boston University, where she subsequently served on the faculty. Named a Kellogg National Fellow in 1987, Walsh traveled throughout the United States and abroad studying workplace democracy and principles of leadership, as well as writing poetry. Immediately before returning to Wellesley in 1993, she was the 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.
^"Miss Ada L. Howard". New Hampshire Women: A Collection of Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Daughters and Residents of the Granite State ... New Hampshire Publishing Company. 1895. p. 29.
^"Ellen Fitz Pendleton, 71 Noted Educator, Dead: President Emeritus of Wellesley College Received Many World-Wide Honors". Daily Boston Globe. Boston, Mass. July 27, 1936. p. 1.
^Pruden III, William H (November 11, 2013). "Nannerl Overholser Keohane (1940–)". The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. Retrieved May 10, 2018.