Safa Zaki
Safa Zaki | |
|---|---|
| 16th President of Bowdoin College | |
| Assumed office July 1, 2023 | |
| Preceded by | Clayton Rose |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Cairo, Egypt |
| Spouse | Huff Templeton |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | American University in Cairo (BA) Arizona State University (MA, PhD) |
Safa Zaki is an Egyptian-born American psychologist and academic administrator serving as the 16th president of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.[1] She is the first woman to lead Bowdoin since its founding in 1794.[2] Prior to her work at Bowdoin, Zaki served as dean of faculty at Williams College.[3]
Early life and education
Zaki was born in 1968 in Cairo, Egypt and raised in Tanzania, Syria, Jordan, and Trinidad and Tobago. Zaki graduated from the American University in Cairo with a BA in psychology. She continued her education in the United States at Arizona State University, earning her master's degree and PhD in psychology.[2]
Career
Prior to her appointment at Bowdoin, Zaki served on the faculty of Williams College for 22 years. She joined the Williams faculty in 2002 as an assistant professor of psychology. She was appointed the dean of faculty at Williams in 2020.[4]
Zaki was elected President of Bowdoin College on March 9, 2023 and began her term on July 1, 2023.[5] She was officially inaugurated on Saturday, October 14, 2023.[6]
In January 2025, Zaki was criticized in Emma Barton-Norris’s 2025 opinion essay “The Cost of Silence,” published in The Bowdoin Orient. The essay critiques Zaki’s policy of refraining from official statements on social, political, or humanitarian issues, first outlined in a 2023 campus-wide email.[7]
Personal life
In 1995, Zaki married Huff Templeton, a fellow graduate student at Arizona State.[8]
References
- ^ "Watch: Like a Boss with Safa Zaki, President of Bowdoin College". The Portland Press Herald. 2024-07-10. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
- ^ a b "Safa Zaki Elected Sixteenth President of Bowdoin College". Bowdoin College. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
- ^ Flores, Nathaniel. "Former Dean of the Faculty Safa Zaki inaugurated as Bowdoin's first female president". The Williams Record. Retrieved 2025-02-11.
- ^ Dean of Faculty Safa Zaki is the next president of Bowdoin College.
- ^ Burns, Christopher (9 March 2023). "Safa Zaki named Bowdoin College's next president". Bangor Daily News.
- ^ Bowdoin College Office of the President
- ^ "The cost of silence – The Bowdoin Orient". bowdoinorient.com. Retrieved 2025-10-08.
- ^ "A Particular Kind of Strength". News. 2023-06-27. Retrieved 2024-05-15.