Chestnut Hill College President Dr. Carol Jean Vale – the longest serving college president in the Philadelphia region – will retire in June 2022, closing out 30 years in the role, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported.
Dr. Carol Jean ValeShe joined Chestnut Hill in 1988 as chair of the religious studies department.
Sister Carol is from the Catholic school’s founding order, the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Philadelphia. For the majority of her 30 years, she did not receive a salary. And pay that she did eventually receive, she put towards her religious order, she said.
During her tenure, she led the school through its 2003 co-ed conversion and through its 2006 campus expansion. She also expanded sports and academics at the school.
Sister Carol – a 1978 Chestnut Hill graduate – holds a bachelor’s in English from Chestnut Hill and a master’s in theology and doctorate in historical theology from Fordham University.
