William Drea Adams

William Drea Adams

'Bro' Adams
10th Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities of the National Endowment for the Humanities
Assumed office
July 2014
President Barack Obama
Deputy Carole M. Watson
Preceded by Jim Leach
19th President of Colby College
In office
2000–2014
Preceded by William R. Cotter
Succeeded by David A. Greene
President of Bucknell University
In office
1995–2000
Preceded by Gary Allan Sojka
Succeeded by Steffen H. Rogers
Personal details
Born Birmingham, Michigan
Spouse(s) Lauren Sterling
Alma mater Colorado College
University of California at Santa Cruz

William Drea Adams is an American educator and advocate for the humanities. He is the tenth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities.[1][2] He served as President of Bucknell University from 1995–2000, and as the 19th President of Colby College from 2000 to 2014.[3]

Early Life and Education

Adams at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2016

Adams was born in Birmingham, Michigan,[4] attended the Holderness School,[5] and began undergraduate studies at Colorado College. He left the school and served for three years in the United States Army, including one year in Vietnam as an infantry advisor in the Mekong Delta, but returned to graduate in 1972 magna cum laude.[6] He subsequently spent a year in France as a Fulbright fellow, studying at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes and the École Normale Supérieure before earning a Ph.D. in the History of Consciousness program at the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1982.

Career

Adams began his professorial career as an assistant professor of political science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and then Santa Clara University. In 1986 he moved to Stanford University where he coordinated the Great Works in Western Culture program. He earned his nickname, Bro, in honor of a friend who died in World War II.[7] In 1988 he took an administrative position at Wesleyan University, eventually becoming the vice president from 1993–1995.[8] Adams authored a PhD dissertation in history of consciousness titled Digging in the same place: an essay in the political and social philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1982).[9]

He served five years as president of Bucknell University in Pennsylvania from 1995–2000, and became Colby's 19th president on July 1, 2000.

Adams served as a director of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network from 2002–2012, Wittenberg University from 2007–2011, and the Unitil Corporation since 2009.[10] President Obama announced his intention to nominate Adams to be the tenth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities in April 2014,[11] and the nomination was confirmed by the Senate in July 2014.[2]

References

Academic offices
Preceded by
Gary Allan Sojka
President of Bucknell University
1995–2000
Succeeded by
Steffen H. Rogers
Preceded by
William R. Cotter
President of Colby College
2000–2014
Succeeded by
David A. Greene
Government offices
Preceded by
Jim Leach
Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Humanities
2014–
Succeeded by


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