S. Georgia Nugent, Ph.D.
HERS Emerit
1994 HERS Leadership Institute Alumna
President, Illinois Wesleyan University
Council of Independent Colleges
Washington, D.C.
Dr. S. Georgia Nugent currently serves as the President of Illinois Wesleyan University. Beginning in 2003, she served as President of Kenyon College. Leading the campaign for independent colleges as a senior advisor to the Council of Independent Colleges. In the six years since at Kenyon, Nugent increased the quality and diversity of faculty and students, dramatically increased resources for financial aid and for faculty development, improved the conditions of employment for staff members, built a child-care facility for faculty and staff, and enhanced “family friendly” policies. Leading the campaign for independent colleges as a senior advisor to the Council of Independent Colleges. She then served as the Interim President of the College of Wooster 2015-2016.
After serving as Interim President of Illinois Wesleyan University August-November 2019, she was named the 20th and first female President in November 2019 and continues to serve in that role. Previously, she was Dean of Princeton University’s Harold W. McGraw Jr. Center for Teaching and Learning. In 1969, Nugent became a member of Princeton’s first coeducational class, graduating cum laude in 1973. She also holds the distinction of being the first female graduate of Princeton to hold a full-time faculty appointment at the university.
Nugent received a Ph.D. in classics from Cornell University and began her teaching career as an instructor at Swarthmore College before returning to Princeton as an assistant professor in 1979.