President Gann's Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

President Gann's Inauguration

Pamela Brooks Gann became president of Claremont McKenna College on July 1, 1999.  She is CMC’s fourth president. Claremont McKenna College is a residential liberal arts college of 1200 students with a focused mission on educating leaders for business, the professions, and public affairs. Its economics and government departments are considered the best at any liberal arts college in the United States. The Henry R. Kravis Leadership Institute is one of the three best leadership programs for undergraduates in the United States.  CMC is regularly ranked among the top 15 liberal arts colleges in the United States, it is the sixth most selective college in admission, and it is a member of consortium of colleges, called The Claremont Colleges, located in Claremont, California. In September 2007, CMC announced a $200 million gift to establish the Robert Day Scholars Program and the creation of the Robert Day School in Economics & Finance. This gift is the 20^th largest in American higher education, and the largest gift ever in the field of economics. In March 2008, CMC publicly commenced a $600 million Campaign, the largest ever announced by a liberal arts college.

Since joining CMC, President Gann has led a multi-year strategic planning process involving more than 130 faculty, staff, students, alumni, and trustees. Student selectivity has continued to increase with only 19% of the applicants for the fall 2008 being admitted, and the geographical diversity of the entering classes has also increased, with nearly 65% of the students originating from outside of California, including around 9% from outside the United Sates.  CMC is one of approximately 35 private colleges and universities who admit all students without regard to the family’s income and then meet all financial need of the student (this is so-called need-blind admission).   In 2008, CMC also announced that it was increasing its scholarship grants in order to eliminate all loans from students’ financial aid package. President Gann has been actively involved in the expansion and replenishment of the College’s faculty across all departments, but especially in the development of the economics, history, philosophy, psychology, and science faculties. Over 50% of CMC’s tenured and tenure-track faculty have been hired since she became president nine years ago. Two new research institutes have been created. The Financial Economics Institute is designed to provide a curricular sequence in financial economics and to support faculty and student research in financial economics. The Center on Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights builds on CMC’s historic strengths in the area of Holocaust studies and international relations.  The Kravis Leadership Institute has been extensively expanded to include more professors, over 125 summer student leadership internships in the United States and around the world, and the Henry R. Kravis Leadership Prize to recognize exceptional leaders in the non-profit sectors in the world. She has also led the expansion of the college’s technology, advancement, and international outreach programs. In the area of advancement, the College will raised over $41 million in gifts paid-in during the 2007-08 fiscal year. This fundraising accomplishment makes CMC one of the top colleges and universities in the nation in amount of gifts raised per alumnus/alumna of the institution. The College has adopted information technology fluency standards for its students, and over 50% of its students study abroad.

The College has also completed a significant revision in its campus master plan that includes over $200 million in proposed new facilities: another residence hall; additional recreational and athletic facilities, including a new tennis center; an academic building that houses three academic departments, five research institutes, over 50% of the classrooms, and the admission and financial aid offices; and a second science building. These new facilities will permit the College to grow by another 200 students on campus. The College will also expand east through the purchase of 40 acres of land from the consortium of The Claremont Colleges.  This land will be used for varsity, club, and intramural sports fields. CMC has also continued to purchase and build houses to rent to faculty and staff to address the high cost-of-housing issues of Southern California.

Prior to her arrival in Claremont, President Gann served for 11 years as dean of the Duke University School of Law, which is a top ten national and international professional school. As Dean, she significantly developed the international reach of the Law School, including an outstanding masters’ degree program for international students, creating new affiliations with universities outside the United States, and setting up two summer programs in comparative and international law, one jointly with the University of Hong Kong and the second jointly with the University of Geneva. The Law School also developed several centers of excellence, including corporate law and governance, intellectual property, public law and governance, and international law. As a faculty member at Duke for 24 years, she developed an international reputation as an expert in federal income taxation, international taxation, international trade, and international business transactions.  She co-authored a leading casebook, Corporate Taxation and Partnership Taxation, and has written on a variety of domestic tax issues, including the family, the appropriate tax unit, and the marriage penalty.

President Gann has an extensive background in international education, including teaching American law and international trade in the People’s Republic of China, France, Denmark, and at the Salzburg Seminar, Salzburg, as well as an intensive training session in Hanoi, where she helped train 100 Vietnam government officials in preparation for bilateral trade agreement negotiations.  She has also visited at the University of Virginia and the University of Michigan, and was awarded an International Affairs Fellowship by the Council on Foreign Relations, through which she worked at the International Monetary Fund and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Gann is an active leader in law, higher education, and international policy.  She has been elected to membership in the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Women’s Forum, the Society of International Business Fellows, and the American Law Institute. She is an elected Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She serves as a member of the Deloitte & Touche Council on the Advancement of Women (WIN); she is a member of the Board of Directors for the American Council on Education, the President’s Council of the NCAA Division III, and the Committee to Visit Harvard Law School. She is an elected Trustee of the Committee for Economic Development, The Institute for the International Education of Students, and the Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles. She was awarded the “Women Lawyer of the Year” award by the North Carolina Association of Women Attorneys and also the YWCA of San Gabriel Valley’s “Women of Achievement Award of Distinction.”

President Gann was born in Monroe, North Carolina.  She is a 1970 mathematics graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  She graduated from the Duke University School of Law in 1973, where she was articles editor of the Duke Law Journal and was elected to the Order of the Coif.  She practiced law in private firms in Atlanta and Charlotte before returning to Duke in 1975 and being named dean in 1988. She travels extensively and is an avid outdoorswoman, particularly enjoying running, scuba diving, mountain trekking and climbing.