Cristle Collins Judd, 11^th President of Sarah Lawrence

The 11th president of Sarah Lawrence, Cristle Collins Judd came to the College in 2017 from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, where she served as a senior program officer for Higher Education and Scholarship in the Humanities. A staunch believer in the value of a Sarah Lawrence education and a devout champion of its students, Judd is known for her visibility on campus, enthusiastically supporting students on a daily basis at events, performances, athletic competitions, and gatherings. She seeks to give an authentic glimpse of life on campus through her Instagram, @slcprez.

First Term (2017-2021)

Honoring existing college traditions while establishing meaningful new ones has been a hallmark of President Judd’s tenure. As part of her inauguration in 2017, she created an annual event series through which the SLC community and invited guests spend the academic year taking a focused look at one topic through various lenses. Beginning with a focus on Democracy & Education (2017-18), the series has spanned Judd’s first and second terms, taking up the following topics: Difference in Dialogue (2018-29), E Pluribus Unum (2019-20), Justice (2020-21); Belonging (2021-22); History Matters (2022-23); Being Human (2023-24); and Polarization: Impacts + Solutions (2024-25).

Chief among the many highlights of Judd’s first term was bringing to successful conclusion the College’s largest Capital Campaign — $200 million — in 2019. That same year, as part of the campaign, the College welcomed two important additions to its suburban campus. First, in August, 18 months after breaking ground, the sustainably designed Barbara Walters Campus Center opened on time, on budget, and fully donor-funded, becoming the College’s first new building in 15 years. And in the shadow of Westlands, the Remy Theatre sprang from the ground. A partial recreation of a 1930s open-air theatre located in Cos Cob, Connecticut, the Remy quickly became a sought-after venue for performances, readings, and even classes.

The middle of President Judd’s first term was marked by the Coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the Sarah Lawrence community and higher education at large. Through thoughtful and steady leadership, Judd navigated the College through this challenging time, guided by the twin priorities of safeguarding the health and wellness of the community and a fundamental commitment to provide an excellent and equitable education. She balanced managing and mitigating the immediate and severe impacts of the pandemic with long-range planning to ensure a successful post-pandemic future for the College, work that continues today.

Strengthening ties with the surrounding community and expanding the College’s reach rank high among President Judd’s priorities. In 2019, Sarah Lawrence was awarded a five-year, $1.2 million grant by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation — the largest programmatic grant in the College’s history — to advance and support civic engagement through the arts and humanities in Westchester County. In 2021, Judd established transfer partnerships with nearby Westchester Community College and Bronx Community College aimed at opening the doors of opportunity to even more students who will benefit from Sarah Lawrence’s one-of-a-kind education.

Also in 2021, delayed one year due to the Coronavirus pandemic, a new partnership brokered by President Judd came to fruition as EXPLO brought its summer program for students in grades 8-10 to the College’s campus.

In June of 2021, as she completed the fourth year of her first five-year term as president of Sarah Lawrence, the College’s Board of Trustees reappointed Judd to a second term, noting its deep admiration and gratitude for her visionary leadership and considerable achievements on behalf of the College.

Second Term (2021-present)

The 2021-22 academic year represented the start of Judd’s second term as president, and was a pivotal year for Sarah Lawrence as the College — and the world — continued to navigate the Coronavirus pandemic. After much planning and preparation, the fall semester marked a return to fully in-person operations and brought the college community together once again. The incoming first-year class of undergraduate students was one of the College’s largest, selected from what was the biggest applicant pool in Sarah Lawrence history.

Ever mindful of learning and growing from the challenges posed by the pandemic, Judd championed two key enhancements to the student experience: the creation of a physical Learning Commons, which grew out of a virtual Learning Commons created during the College’s period of remote learning, and a new position — First Year Dean — to ease new students’ transition to college life and foster a sense of belonging.

In September 2021, Judd secured a $20 million gift from an anonymous alumna, the largest donation in the history of SLC. Aimed at supporting and accelerating Sarah Lawrence’s strategic vision for the future, Judd described the gift as an incredible investment in Sarah Lawrence, saying, “This catalyst for putting our plans into action will usher the College successfully into its next hundred years… [and] is a remarkable vote of confidence in the future of this college.” Other notable fundraising successes in 2021 included a $1.5 million Mellon Foundation grant aimed at addressing the climate crisis and environmental justice through the humanities, and a $1.8 million grant from the Warren Alpert Foundation to increase diversity in genetic counseling.

Expanding on the College’s renowned leadership in genetic counseling, most notably through the Joan H. Marks Graduate Program in Human Genetics, Judd announced in November 2021 the creation of a genomics institute aimed at building a world in which all people have access to the benefits of genetic and genomics science. The College officially launched the Institute for Genomics Education, Workforce & Leadership in 2022 in collaboration with an external advisory committee featuring distinguished industry leaders including Diane Baker MS ’79 and Eric Dishman.

Much of President Judd’s second term has been devoted to broad, long-term planning and development of the human, physical, and financial resources necessary to ensure that Sarah Lawrence continues to thrive into its second century. Working with the newly created Planning and Priorities Committee, Judd has driven momentum in three key areas: supporting the College’s employees; building on the strengths of the College by developing and deepening partnerships; and championing the ongoing renewal of the physical campus.

In 2023, through the collaboration of numerous faculty and staff committees and with the full endorsement of the Board of Trustees, the College embarked on a multi-year plan to better align employee compensation with that of peer institutions.

Fall 2024 marked the launch of a new master’s degree in Genome Health Analysis, developed in partnership with NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine. The close work between SLC’s graduate program in Human Genetics and Institute for Genomics Education, Workforce & Leadership and NYU’s Vilcek Institute of Graduate Biomedical Sciences has been a model of what true collaboration looks like, resulting in a brand new degree that neither institution could have offered on its own and, most importantly, expanded opportunities for students. Likely the first partnership of its kind between a small liberal arts college and a major medical school, the program is the latest example of Sarah Lawrence leading the way for innovation in higher ed.

Also in Fall 2024, the College opened the HUB, a center for Humanity, Understanding, and Belonging. Completed on time and on budget, this renovation and reimagination of the Siegel Center — an original campus building with a storied history — has enjoyed a warm reception from students and is the first step in a broader plan for adaptive reuse of existing campus buildings to better serve the evolving needs of the community. The next step, presently in development, focuses on co-locating areas of the College that support experiential learning beyond the walls of campus, such as Career Services, Community Partnerships, and Global Education.

Sarah Lawrence College has been in the national spotlight on more than one occasion during President Judd’s second term. In November 2022, the campus was the stage for a visit from President Joe Biden as part of a Get Out the Vote event hosted by New York Governor Kathy Hochul. Judd ensured that students got a front-row seat to this historic event, and a number of students participated by performing songs, meeting President Biden, and even taking a selfie with him in the crowd. In July 2023, after the Supreme Court’s decision to ban affirmative action in higher education, the College gained national media attention for creating a new admission essay prompt that directly quoted language from the Court’s ruling. In October 2023, Judd and Dean of Admission & Financial Aid Kevin McKenna were featured in a PBS NewsHour "Rethinking College" segment that centered on the impact of and colleges' responses to the Court’s decision. And in September 2024, McKenna was interviewed by Laura Jarrett on NBC Nightly News in a segment examining the effects of the decision on the college admissions process and the class of 2028.

In 2024, Judd became a member of College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, joining a consortium of 60 college and university presidents committed to advancing civic preparedness and upholding free expression on U.S. campuses. From 2022-2024, she proudly served as the Chair of the Skyline Conference, in which SLC’s athletics teams compete. Since 2019, Judd has annually been named to City & State power lists in recognition of her commitment to deepening Sarah Lawrence’s role as an anchor institution for its surrounding community.

Prior to Sarah Lawrence

A native Texan, Judd earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from Rice University, followed by graduate work at King’s College, University of London, from which she holds master’s and PhD degrees in music theory. Judd’s first academic appointment was at the University of Melbourne (Australia), followed by the University of Exeter (England).

In 1993, Judd joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where she rose through the faculty ranks and was the first woman tenured in the music department. At Penn, she chaired a number of university-wide committees and spearheaded a variety of initiatives, including establishing the College House Music Program, a living-learning program that distributed music performance and instruction throughout the campus. A respected pedagogue, she was the inaugural recipient of the Dean’s Award for Innovation in Teaching.

In 2006, she was appointed dean for academic affairs and professor of music at Bowdoin College, where she served for nine years. The first woman to be appointed dean, her tenure was marked by enhanced support for the arts, improved academic facilities, a renewed focus on environmental and coastal studies, and a new program in digital and computational studies. She secured funding to support faculty development and, working with faculty, led efforts to develop and implement critical new programs and policies around diversity and inclusion, governance, faculty development, and work-life balance. Upon conclusion of her term, Bowdoin’s Board of Trustees voted to name her Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor Emerita.

In 2015, Judd joined the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation as a Senior Program Officer in Higher Education, where she maintained relationships with leaders across all sectors of higher education, convened meetings and policy discussions on broad issues facing higher education, and directed grant-making to support undergraduate and doctoral education, scholarship, the arts, and public humanities.

A highly regarded scholar, Judd’s research on the music of the Renaissance and the history of music theory is widely published and she is a sought-after guest speaker. She has received both of the major scholarly awards in her discipline: the Emerging Scholar Award and the Wallace Berry Award from the Society for Music Theory, and has been named a Distinguished Alumna by Rice University. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a New Directions Fellowship from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. She has served on the editorial boards of various journals, the boards of scholarly societies including the Society for Music Theory and the American Musicological Society, and nonprofit boards including ArtsWestchester, the Bowdoin International Music Festival, and EmeritiHealth.

With her late husband, Robert Judd, she has three daughters: Sarah, Hannah, and Katie.

Last updated December 2024