Vanessa Nakate to Open Giving Black Conference 2026 With Climate Justice Keynote
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United States Ruth Simmons is a distinguished academic leader, having served as president of three different universities, including being the first African American to lead an Ivy League institution.
Simmons served as the eighth president of Prairie View A&M University, a HBCU, from 2017 until 2023, focusing on fundraising and financial stability.
Dr. Ruth Simmons was elected to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation's Board.
As of April 2023, Simmons serves as a President's Distinguished Fellow at Rice University, and has engaged in discussions about the future of DEI in higher education.
Simmons served on the Goldman Sachs board of directors from 2000 to 2009, receiving annual compensation over $300,000 in addition to her Brown salary.
After graduating from Dillard, Dr. Simmons received a Fulbright award to study at the Université de Lyon in France, an experience she describes as pivotal for her career.
In 2023, Dr. Simmons was selected to deliver the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Jefferson Lecture, the highest honor the U.S. government bestows for distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities.
Ruth J. Simmons was born Ruth Jean Stubblefield in Grapeland, Texas, in 1945. She was the youngest of 12 children born to sharecroppers. Her family moved to Houston during her school years. She attended Dillard University, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1967. She then pursued graduate studies, earning her master’s and doctorate in Romance languages and literatures from Harvard University in 1970 and 1973, respectively. From 1973 to 1976, Simmons was an assistant professor of French at the University of New Orleans and assistant dean of the College of Liberal Arts. She moved to California State University, Northridge, in 1977 as administrative coordinator and later acting director of international programs. Between 1979 and 1983, she held roles as assistant and associate dean of graduate studies at the University of Southern California.
Her career continued with significant administrative positions. In 1983, she joined Princeton University, serving as assistant dean of faculty and later associate dean of faculty until 1990. She was then provost at Spelman College from 1990 to 1991, returning to Princeton as vice provost until 1995. In 1995, Simmons became president of Smith College, where she established the nation’s first engineering program at a women’s college. In 2001, she was named the 18th president of Brown University, becoming the first African American to lead an Ivy League institution. During her tenure at Brown, she launched the “Boldly Brown: The Campaign for Academic Enrichment” initiative, which raised $1.61 billion, surpassing its original goal. She also established the University Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice in 2003, leading to a comprehensive report on Brown’s historical ties to the transatlantic slave trade.
After her presidency at Brown, Simmons came out of retirement in 2017 to serve as interim president, and then president, of Prairie View A&M University, a historically Black university in her home state of Texas. During her leadership until 2023, she significantly improved the university’s financial stability and fundraising efforts, increasing donations by 40%. Her work has been recognized with numerous honors, including dozens of honorary doctorates and the French Legion of Honor. In 2023, Brown University renamed its Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice in her honor, the Ruth J. Simmons Center for the Study of Slavery and Justice.
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