Marc C. Conner became the eighth president of Skidmore College on July 1, 2020. An innovative leader of interdisciplinary academic programs, a longtime advocate of diversity and inclusion initiatives and a widely published professor of English, Conner joined Skidmore College following over 24 years at Washington and Lee University in Virginia. From 2016 to 2020, Conner was the longest-serving provost and chief academic officer in Washington and Lee’s history. Conner led the university in reaffirmation of its accreditation, co-chaired its strategic planning process and oversaw the revitalization of its law school. Conner co-founded Washington and Lee's African American studies program in 2007 and was the program's director until 2012. He also established Washington and Lee’s Office of Community-Based Learning and its Center for Academic Resources and Pedagogical Excellence, created interdisciplinary programs in data science and law, and steered the university's faculty recruitment, hiring and retention diversity initiatives. Conner served as associate provost from 2013 to 2015, was chair of the English department, and held the Ballengee Chair of English. He joined Washington and Lee in 1996 as an assistant professor of English with specializations in American and African American literature. He has published extensively on modern American, African American and Irish literature, and has also produced three lecture series for The Great Courses on Shakespeare and on Irish Literature. Conner attended the University of Washington, where he earned a B.A. in philosophy and a B.A. in English literature in 1989. He earned an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English literature in 1994 from Princeton University. He and his wife, Barbara Reyes-Conner, have three sons.
