Audrey Bilger

The debate about the value of a liberal arts education is hardly over, despite attempts to be definitive via cuts in funding for the humanities. Higher education is about more than job training. A broad-based curriculum educates young people to be productive members of society who contribute to the overall well-being of those around them, from adding beauty through art to solving problems with the latest scientific breakthroughs. A liberal arts and science education is an education for life.

President Audrey Bilger, the first woman president of Reed College, is a prolific author and inclusive leader. Bilger has held numerous leadership positions across higher education. She is an active member of LGBTQ+ organizations and local Portland organizations committed to breaking down educational barriers. We talk with President Bilger about learning and questioning with joy and having the courage to lead with heart.

For Reed College President Audrey Bilger, a positive lesson of resilience was how quickly the Reed community could mobilize to address pressing needs, such as the need for virtual instruction. “Prior to March of 2020, we had zero online classes,” Bilger says. “In the last decade, other small liberal arts colleges have increased their online courses. But that’s not a direction that we’ve taken. So when we had to make the move to send everyone to remote instruction, it was really turning on a dime.”

There was no script for Audrey Bilger’s career. So she wrote her own.

“College presidents have been described as the ‘narrators-in-chief’ of their institutions,” said University of Virginia alumna Audrey Bilger, who this summer will become the 16th president of Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and the first woman to serve in that role. “My background as a scholar of literature and teacher in the classroom will be of enormous assistance to me in telling the impressive story of Reed College,” Bilger wrote in email from the West Coast.

The Reed College Board of Trustees has unanimously appointed Audrey Bilger as the 16th president of Reed College. Bilger is the first woman to be selected for the post. She joins the Reed community from Pomona College, where she served as vice president for academic affairs and dean of the college and professor of English.

Pomona College 2016 Convocation Address, Bridges Hall of Music

Instead of viewing each other as opposing sides, both faculty and business officers must come together to participate in budget discussions and help ensure that institutions are operating in ways that are financially sustainable.

To lead effectively, as I have learned from the talented people I encountered this year, you need to commit, to be present, open to possibilities, and fully in the mix. It’s not that different from playing in a band.

Incomparable visionary leadership. Dream catcher. Learning to pilot a rocket ship.These colorful phrases were among the taglines suggested for the ACE Fellowship during a panel of former fellows and their mentors at ACE’s 97th Annual Meeting last month.

Smiles, hugs and pride abounded as festivities to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the ACE Fellows Program kicked off on Saturday night at ACE’s 97th Annual Meeting with a sold-out dinner and dance that reunited fellows from classes dating back to the inaugural 1964-65 group.

The ACE Fellows Program can be hard to explain. For anyone interested in taking on the challenges of higher education leadership, it sounds too good to be true.

The first time I crossed sectors, I moved from being the product of public education—Oklahoma State and the University of Virginia—to a small liberal arts college, and the experience changed my life.

For the past month, I have been following someone around, sitting in on other people’s meetings and spending my days on a campus that is not my own. No, I’m not a stalker. I am an ACE Fellow, and the experience I am having is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for growth and development.