Ruth J. Simmons is the former president of Smith College, Brown University, and Prairie View A&M, Texas’s oldest HBCU, and the former vice provost of Princeton University. The Washington Post describes her memoir, Up Home, as “a love letter to everyone who helped her make her way out of poverty.” It was a New York Times editor’s choice. Dr. Simmons earned her bachelor’s degree from Dillard University and her master’s and doctorate from Harvard in Romance languages and literatures. The president of France named her chevalier of the French Legion of Honor, and President Biden named her to the White House HBCU Advisory Board. She lives in Texas.

This event is co-sponsored by Africana & Latin American Studies.