Princeton University Administration

Shirley Tilghman


University President
 
Shirley M. Caldwell Tilghman, an exceptional teacher and a world-renowned scholar and leader in the field of molecular biology, served on the Princeton University faculty for 15 years before being named president.

A native of Canada, Tilghman received her Honors B.Sc. in chemistry from Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., in 1968, and after two years of secondary school teaching in Sierra Leone, West Africa, she obtained her Ph.D. in biochemistry from Temple University.

During postdoctoral studies at the National Institute of Health, she made a number of groundbreaking discoveries while participating in cloning the first mammalian gene, and then continued to make scientific breakthroughs as an independent investigator at the Institute for Cancer Research in Philadelphia and an adjunct associate professor of human genetics and biochemistry and biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Tilghman came to Princeton in 1986 as the Howard A. Prior Professor of the Life Sciences. Two years later she also joined the Howard Hughes Medical Institute as an investigator and began serving as an adjunct professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. In 1998 she took on additional responsibilities as the founding director of Princeton's multi-disciplinary Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics.

A member of the National Research Council's committee that set the blueprint for the U.S. effort in the Human Genome Project, Tilghman was one of the founding members of the National Advisory Council of the Human Genome Project Initiative for the National Institutes of Health.

She is renowned not only for her pioneering research but also for her national leadership on behalf of women in science and for promoting efforts to make the early careers of young scientists as meaningful and productive as possible. She received national attention for a report on "Trends in the Careers of Life Scientists" that was issued in 1998 by a committee she chaired for the National Research Council, and she has helped launch the careers of many scholars as a member of the Pew Charitable Trusts Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences Selection Committee and the Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust Scholar Selection Committee.

From 1993 through 2000 Tilghman chaired Princeton's Council on Science and Technology, which encourages the teaching of science and technology to students outside the sciences, and in 1996 she received Princeton's President's Award for Distinguished Teaching. She initiated the Princeton Postdoctoral Teaching Fellowship, a program across all the science and engineering disciplines that brings postdoctoral students to Princeton each year to gain experience in both research and teaching.

 

Cynthia Cherrey
Vice President for Campus Life

Cynthia Cherrey is in her first year as Vice President for Campus Life at Princeton, with oversight of the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Students, the Department of Athletics, University Health Services, the Office of Religious Life, Career Services and the Pace Center. She also will seek ways, in collaboration with the Graduate School, to enhance the quality of graduate student life.

Cherrey has more than 30 years of experience in academic and student affairs, most recently at Tulane, where she helped lead the New Orleans school through one of the most challenging periods in its history. In addition,, she has held positions at USC, Denver and North Texas.

Cherrey, who was also the dean of students and a clinical professor in the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane, spent seven years at the school. Following Hurricane Katrina in September 2005, Tulane was forced to close for a semester after sustaining at least $650 million in damages. Cherrey worked as part of the senior leadership team on recovery and renewal efforts. She has played a key role in integrating service learning into the curriculum and accelerating a residential college plan.

During her tenure at Tulane, Cherrey was  responsible for the areas of Housing and Residence Life, Career Services, Student Employment, Dining Services, Bookstore, Greek Life, Student Programs, Counseling, Testing, Tutoring, Campus Recreation, Multicultural Affairs, Orientation, Leadership, and International Students and Scholars. Under her leadership, the Division of Student Affairs created new offices of Student Resources and Support, Violence Prevention, Orientation, and Parent Programs to deliver services and educational programs to the university community, and helped increase student diversity and retention.

From 1989 to 2003, Cherrey worked at the University of Southern California, serving ultimately as an associate vice president for student affairs and as a clinical associate professor in the Rossier School of Education. She received several honors there, including the Mahogany Leadership Award from the Black Student Assembly and Faculty of the Year by the Order of Omega. She led undergraduate courses in communication studies and graduate courses in educational administration and policy. At Tulane, she has taught primarily a freshman class on leadership and politics.An authority on organizational leadership, Cherrey has been president since 2000 of the International Leadership Association, a global network of leadership scholars and practitioners. She has published numerous journal articles and book chapters in areas of leadership, organizational development and higher education. She also has served as co-editor of a publication series and co-written a book about leadership. She has been a speaker at conferences and events in the United States and abroad.

Cherrey was an invited participant in the W.K. Kellogg Leadership project to advance leadership knowledge, education and practice for the 21st century. She is a senior fellow at the James McGregor Burns Academy of Leadership, and was a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship.

A native of Minnesota who grew up as one of eight children on a family farm, Cherrey is a graduate of St. Cloud State University. She earned her Ph.D. in communication studies with a concentration in organizational leadership and management from the University of Denver.