On this date, July 1, 2017, Dr. Ruth Simmons made history when she took the helm as interim President of Prairie View A&M University. Simmons is the first woman selected to lead the 138-year-old university in Prairie View, Texas.
Simmons, an accomplished academician and leader, was confirmed to the position in an unprecedented special call meeting of the Board of Regents of The Texas A&M University System on June 19, 2017.
“We are fortunate to have such a high-caliber scholar and administrator who can step in without missing a beat,” said Texas A&M System Chancellor John Sharp. “Dr. Simmons has been an important figure on the national stage for decades. She has the credentials to be the president of any university in America. I am so excited to have her join us.”
This return to her Texas roots came after Dr. Simmons originally stepped down from the presidency of Brown University in 2012, where she had intended to enjoy retirement surrounded by family and friends. Having already put together one of the most storied careers in American higher education—serving as the 18th president of Brown University (making her the first Black president of an Ivy League institution), leading Smith College as its first Black president, and holding leadership roles at Princeton and Spelman—she had nothing left to prove.
Yet, her profound commitment to student achievement and deep Texas ties pulled her back into the arena. Born into a poor family of 12 children in Grapeland, Texas, at a time when colleges were just beginning to desegregate, she understood firsthand the life-changing power of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Her brother had attended PVAMU, and she viewed the opportunity as a personal way to give back to her community. From the very beginning, she made it clear that she had no intention of being a passive placeholder:
"I am coming into the position with great ambition and a willingness to take on the big projects. Just be mindful that I wouldn't take a position just to twiddle my thumbs. If I am going to be lazy, I would rather that be on my own time."
True to her word, her first order of business was to listen, learn, and dive straight into the issues facing the campus community. Recognizing the immense vision and momentum she brought to the campus, the Texas A&M University System quickly dropped the temporary label, confirming her as the official 8th President of Prairie View A&M University on December 4, 2017.
What followed was a historic five-year tenure of transformation that completely elevated the university’s national profile. Dr. Simmons injected a culture of transparency, strict fiscal accountability, and institutional respectability, always centering her decisions around student development. Under her visionary leadership, the university became an R2 research university and she also engineered unprecedented financial milestones for the university. Most notably, she received an historic $50 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott. In a profound full-circle moment of academic legacy, Scott had been a student of Nobel Laureate Toni Morrison—whom Dr. Simmons had famously hired years earlier during her own tenure as Vice Provost at Princeton. This initial act of generosity dramatically increased the university's endowment and catalyzed a powerful continuum of support; it directly inspired MacKenzie Scott to return with a second, record-shattering $63 million gift—the largest single donation in the university's 149-year history—affirming the incredible long-term momentum Dr. Simmons set in motion.
After anchoring the university through these pivotal years, Dr. Simmons made the difficult and emotional decision to pass the torch to the next generation of leadership. While the announcement came as a shock to a campus riding high on her momentum, Dr. Simmons selflessly emphasized that the university's future required a new leader to carry out its upcoming strategic goals. In her departing letter, she issued a characteristic call to action for the university she had come to love:
"Prairie View A&M is nowhere near what it could ultimately achieve as an institution of the first class. Our students deserve more, and we must provide it for them. As we undergo our strategic planning, it is evident to me that a new leader must assume responsibility for advancing the University to a new level of excellence in student outcomes, faculty achievement and research output."
Chancellor John Sharp later remarked that bringing Dr. Simmons out of retirement to lead Prairie View was one of the proudest achievements of his career. Though she stepped down from the day-to-day presidency, she left PVAMU permanently changed, firmly set on a trajectory of top-tier academic success, and forever marked by her inspiring legacy.
True to her lifelong ethos of service, Dr. Simmons’ impact on higher education only continued to expand after stepping down from the PVAMU presidency. She subsequently assumed the role of senior adviser to the president of Harvard University, intentionally focusing on engagement and relationships with HBCUs. In this pivotal role, she has been key to implementing a collaborative research and program initiative between the Ivy League and HBCUs, designed to help partner institutions achieve elite Carnegie Research R2 and R1 designations. Simultaneously, as a President’s Distinguished Fellow at Rice University, she leads vital initiatives aimed at increasing the pipeline of minority professionals entering graduate programs to become the next generation of professors and research scientists—ensuring that her visionary leadership continues to shape the future of American academia.
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