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	“By building strong connections among women in higher education leadership and by researching and articulating the great benefits to higher education and the nation of women’s leadership and women’s values, the American Council on Education’s Office of Women in Higher Education continues to provide the vision and energy for positive change within the academy and in society at large.”
	Janet L. Holmgren President, Mills College Former Chair of the Board, ACE

History of the Office of Women in Higher Education

In 1973, the American Council on Education (ACE) formed the Office of Women in Higher Education (OWHE). Since its founding, OWHE has provided information and counsel to constituencies within the higher education community regarding policies, issues, education, and research that influence women’s equity, diversity, and advancement. Through its efforts at the national level and through the state organizations that form the ACE Network, OWHE has built an outstanding history of commitment to the advancement of women leaders in higher education. It is a history in which OWHE takes great pride and celebrates.

Historically, ACE addressed the educational needs and concerns of women by publishing studies and reports in the decade following its founding in 1918. In the years following World War II and the Korean War, ACE continued its support by sponsoring research and national conferences on “Women in the Defense Decade” and by establishing a Commission on Women (1953-1961).

Responding to the changing cultural and political climate within the nation in the 1960s and 1970s, particularly evident in the civil rights and education legislation of the day, the American Council on Education devoted its entire 1972 Annual Meeting to women in higher education.

Also in 1972, Roger Heyns, the president of ACE, and Martha Peterson, chair of the ACE Board, began discussions with professional women educators, including many who were associated with the Council, about supporting women in academia. These discussions led the Board in October of that year to establish an Office of Women within the Council and reestablish the Commission on Women in Higher Education to advise it.

In 1973, Nancy Schlossberg, then a professor of education at Wayne State University, became the first director of the Office. Schlossberg hired Donna Shavlik, Associate Dean of Students at the University of Delaware, to be her assistant. Under their direction, the Office accepted its charge from ACE to promote women’s leadership and develop a roster of women ready for top administrative positions in higher education.

During its first years, OWHE worked with ACE and colleges and universities on implementing Title IX, equal pension benefits, and other legal and political measures. These issues provided an important backdrop for the major focus of the Office—the advancement of women into senior leadership positions in higher education. In 1974, in conjunction with the ACE Office of Leadership Development, OWHE organized the first ACE Symposium for Women Considering Careers in Higher Education. This event drew more than 300 applications for 100 spaces and became the prototype for future OWHE conferences and meetings. It also resulted in a discovery that would shape the future priorities of OWHE: access—not lack of ability—was the key barrier to advancing women in college and university administration.

Schlossberg left OWHE after its first year, but Shavlik continued the work of the Office until Emily Taylor, Dean of Women at the University of Kansas, was hired in 1975 as the second director of OWHE. Together, Taylor and Shavlik, serving as director and associate director respectively, continued to focus on advancing women in higher education administration. Later that year, OWHE compiled the first “Table of Women CEOs in U.S. Colleges and Universities.” This study showed that of the 2,500 regionally accredited institutions of higher education, only 148 (or 5 percent) were headed by women—two thirds of whom were members of religious orders. Similar statistics came to light in other reports on leadership in higher education institutions. Evidence continued to mount that identifying women who were both ready and able to advance was essential to increasing the number of women in college and university presidencies. What women needed, OWHE learned, were programs that promoted the advancement of women.

In 1976–77, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, OWHE created the National Identification Program for the Advancement of Women in Higher Education. This program, now known as the ACE Network, was originally designed to increase the number of women in senior administrative positions in higher education, especially presidencies. With guidance and support from OWHE, efforts to identify and advance women into leadership positions would take place across the country, augmenting the scope of the Office’s work. By 1977, 12 states—those with the greatest number of higher education institutions and the greatest number of students—had initiated state programs, followed by other states over the next five years.

Judith Touchton joined OWHE in 1977, beginning a tenure at the Office that would last until 1998. She remembers the Office’s early focus on making women leaders more visible, particularly during institutional searches for senior-level administrators. For this effort to be successful OWHE needed to form a coalition of men and women, including current college presidents and those who sat on search committees.

It also was clear that someone needed to collect, analyze, and disseminate data on the advancement of women. This effort became a continuing responsibility of the Office. In ACE publications and in books and articles published by others, OWHE began to address a wide variety of issues relating to women and the college presidency. From the seminal works published by the Office in the 1970s and 1980s, to the most recent From Where We Sit: Women’s Perspectives on the Presidency, OWHE has established a proud record of leading the dialogue on advancing and supporting women in higher education administration.

Among the programs supported by OWHE to advance women in higher education have been its National Forums. Begun in 1977, OWHE has sponsored these conferences for women poised to assume presidencies, vice presidencies, and major deanships. The sessions enable them to meet and network with college presidents, search firms, and experts on various aspects of college and university leadership. The Office has held 67 forums since their inception, attended by approximately 1,200 women. Records indicate that approximately 20 percent of National Forum alumnae go on to become a college or university president, while others advance into senior positions at colleges and universities or other higher education organizations and foundations.

OWHE also has sponsored programs to support women who have achieved college presidencies. In 1990, the Office sponsored the first of four Women Presidents’ Summits, creating opportunities for women leaders to reflect on the status of women in higher education, shape future initiatives, and form international networks.

Throughout its history, OWHE has developed strong ties with outside organizations, seeking the cooperation and support of other presidential associations, women’s organizations, and advocacy groups that serve women in higher education. These ties have been especially advantageous when the Office has worked to support women of color. Since its inception, OWHE has maintained an intentional awareness of women of color as part of its commitment to diversity and equity. On many occasions, the Office has supplemented its own efforts by collaborating both with other ACE departments and with other organizations to advance women of color.

Commitment to these programs has held regardless of who has been at the helm of the Office. In 1982, Taylor retired from the directorship of OWHE, and Shavlik was named director. Soon thereafter, Touchton was named deputy director, forming a leadership team with Shavlik that endured through 1997, when Shavlik retired. Touchton then became the Office’s interim director, succeeded by Judith Sturnick in 1998. When Sturnick, the first director to also hold the title of ACE vice president, left OWHE in 2000 to become president of the Union Institute, Gladys Brown, then associate director, was named interim director, a position she held until 2001, when Claire Van Ummersen became the Vice President and Director of the Office of Women in Higher Education. She, in turn, appointed Donna Burns Phillips as Associate Director in August 2002. In October 2005, Phillips was promoted to the director’s position when Van Ummersen was appointed to oversee all of ACE’s leadership programs as the Council’s new Vice President of the Center for Effective Leadership. In December 2005, Gloria Thomas was appointed, to work with Donna Burns Phillips, as the associate director.

Leadership History of ACE’s Office of Women in Higher Education

Throughout these leadership changes, OWHE has maintained—and continues to maintain—a clear focus on its mission: to IDENTIFY women leaders nationally in higher education; to DEVELOP women’s leadership abilities; to ENCOURAGE women to use their abilities and talents; to ADVANCE more women into leadership positions; to LINK women leaders to one another; and to SUPPORT the tenure of mid- and senior-level women administrators and educators.

All information presented is from the ACE Network State Coordinator's Handbook, January 2006.