Carmen Twillie Ambar knows that some people think women’s colleges are obsolete.
But Ambar, president of Cedar Crest College for Women in Allentown, Pa., who formerly led Rutgers University’s Douglass College, says, “they are now more relevant than they’ve ever been.”
Women’s colleges continue to thrive because female students seek out women’s education, thinking they’ll have more leadership opportunities and more support of their goals from faculty and peers, she explains.
Ambar, the first Black woman to ever lead the 141-year-old school, adds that such opportunities inherently benefit women of color, providing them with “another way of overcoming the barriers that they face.”
recently told students at Cedar Crest that her goal will be to give them a more global view through study abroad, linkages with foreign colleges, an international focus in school curriculum, and the use of campus centers and residential houses that focus on cultural and topical global issues. “Our goal will be to reshape the global landscape, one Cedar Crest student at a time,” she said then.
The Little Rock, Ark., native says her priorities are rooted in her parents’ experiences seeking education in a segregated environment.
