Sweet Briar College named Meredith Woo its next president on Monday. Woo served as dean of the University’s College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences from 2008 to 2014.
Woo will succeed Phillip C. Stone, who is stepping down in May. Stone served as Sweet Briar’s president since the College announced it would permanently close nearly two years ago.
The decision to close was based on low enrollment numbers Sweet Briar could not sustain, but with alumni support, it was able to remain open. Sweet Briar’s possible closing raised questions on the viability of private liberal arts institutions.
Sweet Briar, a private women’s college near Lynchburg, chose Woo for her commitment to women’s education as well as her fundraising success during her time at the University, where under her leadership the College of Arts and Sciences’ annual philanthropic support tripled.
Woo will be leaving her position as the director of the International Higher Education Support Program for the Open Society Foundation in London. Her program works to promote liberal arts education in eastern Europe and higher education for refugees in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. Before coming to the University, Woo served in positions at the University of Michigan, Northwestern University and Columbia University.
Woo said students’ dedication and the college’s history were among the features of Sweet Briar attracting her to the position of the presidency.
“Sweet Briar is an important institution for the Commonwealth,” Woo said. “It has important historical, cultural and intellectual relevancy. It also has strong fundamentals. [Sweet Briar] has a very caring faculty that are really working with students in a hands-on way. And the students, both current and former, are very dedicated to the college.”
Woo said she seeks to remedy the negative stigma surrounding the college’s recent financial issues.
“The only way to counter the negative narrative is by having one that’s more informative [of reality],” she noted. “I will be going forward, working with the faculty to restructure the curriculum.”
Woo also said her experience at the University involving curriculums and finances has prepared her for the Sweet Briar presidency.
“As you know, I was Dean of Arts and Sciences [at the University] for six years, so I was dealing with the kinds of issues that I’ll be dealing with at Sweet Briar,” she said. “That means working on curriculum reform, working on fundraising, working to make sure the budget is balanced. These are the requirements of a leader in any kind of liberal arts setting, and so I’ll be taking that experience and background to do my best at Sweet Briar.”
Woo also placed a special importance on the experience she gained after she departed from the University in 2014. During her time in London, Woo worked on providing college education to Syrian refugees, as well as the Rohingya people in Burma.
“The other effort that I was involved with and I’m very proud to say that I initiated, was the effort to create something of an underground railroad for who are considered one of the most persecuted minorities in Burma, the Rohingya people,” Woo said. “We provided four-year liberal arts education for the smartest Rohingya refugee women that we could find, and the results have been spectacular.”
Teresa Pike Tomlinson, chair of the Sweet Briar College Board of Directors, said Woo’s qualifications as a changemaker and devotion to education were attractive to the college’s presidential selection committee.
“I think she hit all of the high points we were looking for,” Tomlinson said. “She was a bold change agent. She’s not afraid to make very difficult decisions and rethink higher education. So she had the experience, not only being an academic and having administrative experience, but also having outside-the-box experience as well.”
Tomlinson said she believes Woo could provide transformational leadership by way of her unique perspective on the future of women’s education.
“She makes the point that access to education is no longer the issue for women,” she stated. “But women’s empowerment and leadership building is in desperate need, and we provide an environment uniquely prepared to deliver that type of education.”
Correction: This article has been updated with language to clarify that Sweet Briar did not actually close two years ago — instead, it was able to remain open.
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