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Ruth Simmons Named Prairie View Interim President

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Retired Brown University President Ruth Simmons, the first African-American woman to serve as president of an Ivy League institution, has been named interim president of Prairie View A&M University.

The 71-year-old Simmons, who also was president at Massachusetts’ Smith College, the nation’s largest women’s university, and served in executive positions at Princeton and Spelman College, takes over at Prairie View for George Wright, who is returning to teaching history after holding the top job for 14 years.

When Simmons retired from Brown in 2012 after 11 years, she returned to her native Houston. Her appointment to Prairie View, approved by the Texas A&M System Board of Regents, is effective July 1.

In another move, the Board of Regents has named Kelly Quintanilla as the sole finalist to be president of Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. She’s been interim president since January.

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