Scripps College began a new era on April 29, 2017, when Lara Tiedens was inaugurated as the College’s ninth president. Tiedens, who accepted the position in June 2016, beamed as hundreds of Scripps alumnae, students, faculty, and staff gathered on Elm Tree Lawn to watch the installation ceremony.
The one-and-a-half-hour commemoration featured speeches and provided some insight into Tiedens, a scholar of social psychology.
Scripps College Board of Trustee Chair Mark Herron, who opened and closed the ceremony, welcomed Tiedens to the campus.
“We hope and trust President Tiedens will help Scripps College reach a new level of excellence,” he said.
Trustee Betsy Weinberg Smith ’74, co-chair of the Presidential Search Committee, said the search process revealed early Lara Tiedens as the ideal candidate. “We were immediately struck by her poise, willingness to listen, and her bravery,” she said.
Maia Young, former student of President Lara Tiedens, said of her mentor, “Lara speaks with utter clarity, wisdom, and discernment.”
Margaret “Maggie” Neale, a former academic colleague at Stanford who served as a mentor to Tiedens, noted, “Lara’s superpower is weeding out superfluous details.”
Scripps Associated Students president Sneha Deo ’17 also offered praise for the new president, saying, “Through this difficult year, I have seen President Tiedens keep in her mind student needs.”
“The world has not yet seen all we can offer, how education is key to the advancement of women,” Tiedens said in her inauguration speech. Scripps’ role in preparing young women as leaders was a recurring theme of the inauguration weekend, and Tiedens’ remarks further elaborated on the future of the College and its students, including her plans to ensure everyone who attends receives the best education and experience possible.
President Tiedens encouraged everyone to continue the movement to advance women, noting that despite great gains over the years, “there are [still] disparities between women and men in economic opportunities, educational attainment, health, and political empowerment.”
She affirmed the words of Scripps College’s founder, Ellen Browning Scripps, “We are developing in our students the ability to think clearly and independently, to live confident, courageous, and hopeful lives.”
And she spoke of dreams and aspirations, noting that, through the strength and support of the College as it celebrates its 90th anniversary, “Scripps is positioned to meet the greatest challenges of our time by cultivating the next generation of scholars and leaders.”
President Tiedens came to Scripps College from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where she was senior associate dean of academic affairs and a professor of social psychology, specializing in leadership.
In prior years as an associate dean, she led the PhD program at the Graduate School of Business as well as its Global Innovation Program. Previously, Tiedens was the Morgan Stanley Director of Stanford’s Center for Leadership Development and Research, and she has served as an advisor for numerous Stanford leadership initiatives.
From 2008–2016, Tiedens served as the Jonathan B. Lovelace Professor of Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business. Her scholarship focused on the psychological roots of inequality and the role of emotions in organizational life. She has published widely on these topics, served as an associate editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, and sat on several editorial boards. Tiedens taught in a variety of programs, including the MBA program, Executive Education, and the PhD program at Stanford. She designed the leadership curriculum at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, which has become one of the hallmarks of the MBA program.
In addition to the formal installation, the weekend of festivities on Scripps’ campus included an academic panel featuring faculty-student research collaborations, an interactive sampling of the College’s distinctive Core Curriculum in Interdisciplinary Studies, an outdoor campus community reception and dinner with jazz band accompaniment, and alumnae reunion activities. More than 500 Scripps alumnae and 50 delegates from other colleges and universities attended the event.
Highlights from inauguration can be found at scripps-staging.skybox0.com/inauguration.