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We are delighted to announce that Dr. Marcia Grant will join our community as Interim Provost for the 2016-2017 academic year, arriving on campus August 16 and continuing into early summer next year. Scott Sprenger will be taking administrative leave for a year.

Dr. Grant has had a fascinating global career as an academic entrepreneur, serving as founding dean at three American-style international universities abroad. Her work has always been characterized by a deep interest in student learning, in excellent teaching, and in faculty development. Grant helped to found Effat University, the first women’s liberal arts college in Saudi Arabia, the arts and sciences division of a liberal arts university for the Aga Khan in Pakistan, a new curriculum at Foreman Christian College in Lahore, and, most recently, the liberal arts curriculum of an American University in Ghana known as Ashesi, the brainchild of fellow Swarthmore graduate Patrick Awuah who just won a MacArthur for his work. Dr. Grant has been highly lauded for her academic leadership and her work as a political scientist and as a practitioner—with over 10 years of experience as a United States Foreign Service professional in both Paris and Mexico City. She is a graduate of Swarthmore and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, as well as London School of Economics, where she did her doctorate. 

As former Provost at the American Graduate School of International Relations and Diplomacy in Paris, Dr. Grant knows French language and culture, and is very familiar with French labor laws. She also has a home in France.