Lara Tiedens began her tenure as president of Scripps College on August 1, 2016, assuming the title of the W.M. Keck Foundation Presidential Chair. President Tiedens has implemented initiatives to promote innovative pedagogy, ensure a holistic student experience, cultivate a diverse and inclusive community, and forge strategic partnerships to amplify Scripps’ impact and influence on the advancement of women in society.
She has led the efforts to develop a new strategic plan to strengthen Scripps’ position as a national leader in liberal arts and women’s education and to reinforce a commitment to the College’s mission, values, and legacy while shaping its future. Initiatives of utmost importance to President Tiedens include: leveraging Scripps’ rich tradition in the humanities to solve complex economic, social, and political challenges; building the pipeline of women leaders in fields in which they are underrepresented, such as science and technology; and cultivating a culture of equity and inclusion on campus. She has increased the financial aid budget to expand support for underrepresented students and implemented the Presidential Scholarship Initiative to raise endowed support for scholarships. She has also led conversations to strengthen the Scripps community through curiosity, compassion, and dialogue.
President Tiedens has spent more than 20 years building high-performing leaders, teams, and organizations in elite, higher-education institutions, and her career has been guided by her passion for expanding opportunities for women. Before becoming president of Scripps, she was a senior associate dean of academic affairs and faculty member in the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, where she oversaw key educational and administrative functions, including the PhD program, executive education, and the Global Innovation Program. An expert in leadership development, President Tiedens was also the Morgan Stanley Director of Stanford University’s Center for Leadership Development and Research, and she designed the leadership curriculum for the Stanford Graduate School of Business and led other Stanford leadership initiatives. Her personal leadership development includes completion of the Stanford Leadership Academy and the Women Leaders of Stanford University Program. She characterizes the Scripps presidency as an opportunity to continue to harness the power of education to transform women’s lives, empower them, and enable them to support and promote each other.
Recognized by her peers for her scholarship and contributions to the field of social psychology, President Tiedens’ research explores the psychological roots of inequality. She has sought an understanding of why organizations are frequently characterized by differences in status, resource allocation, and respect. She has also examined the role of emotions in shaping our thinking about the events we experience in organizational life. President Tiedens has published extensively on these topics and has served on numerous editorial boards. She has earned many awards and honors for teaching, research, and leadership from organizations such as the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. She has also held several named professorships, including the Spence Faculty Scholar and the Fletcher Jones Faculty Scholar in the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
President Tiedens obtained her MA and PhD in social psychology from the University of Michigan and her BA in psychology from Carleton College. She is married to Dale T. Miller, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford University, and has two children.