Sian Leah Beilock starts work on campus as Dartmouth’s 19th president on Monday and plans to meet with students, faculty, staff, community members, and alumni in the days ahead.

“The warmth and welcome I have already received from all corners of the Dartmouth community has been energizing,” says President Beilock. “I’m thrilled to be in Hanover and looking forward to getting to work, confident that Dartmouth can be an engine for hope and positive change.”

“I find opportunity in the way we join intellectual rigor with practical impact, in service of the Dartmouth community and the world,” she says. “And I take heart in the big tent Dartmouth provides for different points of view, and the brave spaces it creates for the exchange of ideas.”

Beilock officially wrapped up her responsibilities at Barnard on June 11 and is succeeding Philip J. Hanlon ’77, who stepped down after a 10-year tenure as president.

Beilock’s inauguration is scheduled for Sept. 22, and she has already held hundreds of conversations over the past year with members of the Dartmouth community, including faculty and students, and plans to use her first weeks in office to talk with more people from across the institution.

There is no shortage of activity on campus. Reunions are in full swing, and alumni who are back in Hanover are invited to join Beilock for a moderated discussion Tuesday morning, June 13, or Saturday morning, June 17, at venues on campus.

In addition, the summer term for undergraduates starts on June 22, and programs, research, clerkships, and other events continue at the Tuck School of Business, Thayer School of Engineering, Guarini School of Graduate and Advanced Studies, and Geisel School of Medicine. 

Beilock, a cognitive scientist who studies the factors in the brain that influence all types of performance, has served as president of Barnard since 2017.

Before joining Barnard, Beilock spent 12 years at the University of Chicago, where she was the executive vice provost and the Stella M. Rowley Professor of Psychology.

The recipient of a National Academy of Sciences Troland Research Award and a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation, she has authored two critically acclaimed books and 120 peer-reviewed publications.