Kathleen McCartney

Smith College

President Emerita

Kathleen McCartney is President Emerita Smith College. A summa cum laude graduate of Tufts University, she earned both her master's and doctoral degrees in psychology from Yale University. Prior to Smith, McCartney was dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education—only the fifth woman dean in Harvard's history. At Smith, McCartney led a strategic planning process that is resulting in important new academic and co-curricular programs. Under her leadership, Smith promoted women in business through the newly-establish Jill Ker Conway Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship as well as the Alumnae Business Network; expanded the Office for Equity and Inclusion to mitigate racial injustice and to promote a sense of belonging for all at Smith; dramatically increased financial aid through the Women for the World and Here for Every Voice campaigns; and engaged architectural designer Maya Lin to re-envision its historic Neilson Library, scheduled for completion in spring 2021. McCartney is the author of nine volumes and more than 160 journal articles and book chapters on childcare and early childhood experience, education policy and parenting. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Education, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society. She has served as a director of the American Council on Education, the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, Five Colleges, Inc., and Tufts University.