Long-serving Bryn Mawr College president to step down in June 2024

Kim Cassidy, who has spent her entire career at the women's college, will return to the faculty in fall 2026 following a two-year sabbatical.

Kim Cassidy, president of Bryn Mawr College, will step down in June 2024.Read moreCourtesy of Bryn Mawr College

by Susan Snyder

Published May 2, 2023, 1:18 p.m. ET

Kim Cassidy will step down as president of Bryn Mawr College in June 2024, ending an 11-year run — nearly twice the average tenure for presidents these days.

“I believe that leadership renewal is crucial to the long-term, strategic success of any organization,” Cassidy wrote in an email to the campus community Tuesday. “It has been an honor to serve as president of Bryn Mawr.”

The average tenure for a college president — an increasingly difficult job with enrollment challenges and financial strain — was 5.9 years in 2022, down from 6.5 in 2017 and 8.5 years in 2006, according to a recent report by the American Council on Education.

Cassidy, 59, an expert in psychology, will return to the faculty in fall 2026 following a two-year sabbatical, the college said. She has spent her entire career at Bryn Mawr, joining the faculty at the women’s college in 1993 and serving as provost for six years before stepping in as interim president in 2013.

The college, which has 1,409 undergraduates, said it will form a search committee for the next president.

» READ MORE: Bryn Mawr names Cassidy as president

Cynthia Archer, chair of Bryn Mawr’s board of trustees, said in a message to campus that she was grateful for Cassidy’s leadership.

“Her collaborative leadership has raised Bryn Mawr’s enduring commitment to academic excellence, global engagement, and student success within a vibrant, inclusive community to new heights,” Archer said.

Archer credited Cassidy, a native of Elverson, Chester County, with helping to make education more affordable by eliminating loans as part of the financial aid package for students with family incomes below $60,000 and reducing loans for others. Cassidy led a $301 million fundraising campaign and garnered the college’s largest single gift of $25 million from an alumna and longtime supporter who asked to remain anonymous.

Cassidy also championed multidisciplinary approaches to teaching, led the college’s efforts for diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism and advocated for gender equity, the college said.

She also had to lead the college through some difficult times, including concerns that were raised about M. Carey Thomas, perhaps Bryn Mawr’s most influential president, who led the college from 1894 to 1922, but who employed racist and antisemitic policies. The college in March said it was removing Thomas’ name from the library.