Laura Skandera Trombley

Laura Skandera Trombley is an American scholar of Mark Twain and Chair Emerita of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board She was the fifth President of Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and the eighth President (and first female president) of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California

Born as Laura Elise Skandera to an elementary school principal and second-grade teacher, she enrolled in Pepperdine University at the age of 16 and earned a B.A. in English and Humanities by age 20. She graduated summa cum laude with a master's in English from Pepperdine University. From 1985 to 1988 she was a research associate in the American Studies department at the Universitaet Eichstaett in Germany.She received her PhD in English from the University of Southern California and during her studies received the Virginia Barbara Middleton Scholarship and English Graduate Student scholarship, as well as being the Lester and Irene Finkelstein Fellow. In 2002, Pepperdine recognized Skandera Trombley with the Distinguished Alumna Award and awarded her an honorary doctorate in 2013.

She is the 2017 Recipient of the Lou Budd Award in Recognition of Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Mark Twain Studies, the highest honor in Mark Twain scholarship.

After the completion of her PhD, Skandera Trombley accepted a teaching position at the State University of New York in Potsdam where she earned tenure in three years as an associate professor of English. Skandera Trombley also served in other administrative roles at Potsdam including assistant provost. In 1997, she assumed the post of vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty, the first woman to hold that title, at Coe College, a private liberal arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She was named President of Pitzer College at age 40. She was chosen, in 2015, as the first woman President of the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Skandera Trombley became an advisor to The Huntington Board of Trustees in 2017 and a consultant to the Libra Foundation and Schiff Foundation. She is a Professor of the Practice of English in the Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California.

The Huntington Library

In her first year, Skandera Trombley raised 39.4 million dollars, a 10 million increase over the previous year, ended the year with a 3.6 million surplus, and lowered the endowment spending rate to 4.9%. Under her tenure, she negotiated a new food vendor contract worth baseline 25 million over 10 years; increased open hours by 130%, and completed funding for the Chinese Garden, a 20-year project, with gifts totaling12 million dollars. She worked to establish internal sustainability and water conservation efforts; organized the first institutional sustainability summit; and signed an agreement with the University of California, Riverside to subsidize the hiring of two assistant professors who will do research full-time in The Huntington's collections. She also hired the institution’s first Vice President of Information Technology and its first Vice President of Facilities.

Skandera Trombley created the first institutional dashboard; completed an insurance RFP, resulting in lowered rates and increased coverage; instituted The Huntington Channel to archive videos and web casts for the public; and created the Out of the Vault Series, to heighten the Huntington’s profile in the southern California region. She instituted San Marino Day and created annual staff recognition awards. She negotiated a new agreement between The Huntington and USC for The Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West (ICW) and USC-Huntington Early Modern Studies Institute (EMSI); exhibited NASA’s JPL Orbit Pavilion to outstanding attendance and reviews; and secured a future exhibition of the Hamilton/Burr pistols, due Fall 2017. The Jonathan and Karin Fielding Wing was constructed, a $10.3 million expansion to the Virginia Steele Scott Galleries of American Art designed by Frederick Fisher, along with a major contribution of their collection, and retrofitted a newly constructed auditorium for filming and live webcasts.

She has given keynote speeches on behalf of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board at 70th Anniversary events in Berlin, Helsinki, Jerusalem, and the State Department in Washington, DC; hosted TEDxFulbright in Santa Monica; published an Op-Ed, “In Face of Terror, Humanities Education More Important Than Ever,” and was appointed to The Rhodes Trust, Chair, District 16 Committee of Selection for the Rhodes Scholarships. She is also featured in an upcoming documentary by Indigo Films, “Mark Twain’s Journey to Jerusalem,” Fall 2017.

She stepped down as president of the institution in April 2017.

Pitzer College

Skandera Trombley was inaugurated as president of Pitzer College in February 2003, the same year that the college celebrated its 40th anniversary. In her first year in office, she made the SAT optional as a criteria for admission to the college.

During Skandera Trombley's presidency, Pitzer founded several new collegiate centers and majors. The college launched the Robert Redford Conservancy for Southern California Sustainability. Other initiatives developed during Skandera Trombley's tenure include the Firestone Center for Restoration Ecology in Costa Rica and the Vaccine Development Institute's partnership with the University of Botswana. Skandera Trombley increased the College’s student access to overseas study from 49% to 80% and established over fifty exchanges, including the first ever with the Royal Thimphu College in Bhutan. These exchanges also provided access for international students from lower economic backgrounds to study at an American liberal arts college. In 2011, under Skandera Trombley, Pitzer became the first college in the country to offer a degree in secular studies.

In the thirteen years she led the college, the admission acceptance rate improved from 56 percent to 11 percent, and the college moved up 35 places in the U.S. News & World Report rankings: No. 70 in 2004 to No. 35 in 2014. In 2012, Pitzer was named the 20th most selective higher education institution in the country by Business Insider. During her tenure, Pitzer had the most Fulbright Fellowships of any college/university per 1000 students and for the fifth consecutive year, The Chronicle of Higher Education named Pitzer College as the top producer of student Fulbright Fellows among all US colleges.

Additionally, she grew the annual endowment fund from $42 million in 2003 to $133 million in 2014, raised the lowest worker compensation to 10 percent above the living wage for Los Angeles County, and retained all faculty and staff positions during the 2008 recession. Skandera Trombley completed three fundraising campaigns totaling over $110 million dollars, and established endowments: the John Skandera student financial aid fund for first generation students, the Laura Skandera Trombley endowment and the Laura Skandera Trombley Humanities and Arts Endowed Research and Internship Fund. Since the beginning of her presidency, the College's annual fund increased by 80 percent and the endowment over 195 percent.

Skandera Trombley provides commentary about the humanities and higher education. She has authored five books, some of which are about her scholarly interest Mark Twain, including Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years, and Mark Twain in the Company of Women. She was also the co-editor with Michael Kiskis on Constructing Mark Twain: New Directions in Scholarship and she was featured in the 2002 Ken Burns documentary titled, Mark Twain. In addition, she is the editor of Critical Essays on Maxine Hong Kingston and co-author of Epistemology: Turning Points in the History of Poetic Knowledge. She has published op-ed pieces in the Chronicle of Higher Education about the challenges faced by women in higher education administrations and has published dozens of scholarly articles. She is a regular blogger on social media sites, The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast, and she has also presented and been a moderator at TEDxFulbright.

Skandera Trombley is active in Los Angeles and national organizations including the Chief Executive Organization, Board Member, The Southern California Forum of The Trusteeship of the International Women's Forum, Rotary International Member, the Zamorano Club, the Council on Foreign Relations Higher Education Working group on global Issues, the Chronicle of Higher Education/New York Times Higher Education Cabinet and the Council of Presidents of the Association of Governing Boards. In December 2012, President Barack Obama named Skandera Trombley to the 12-member J. William Fulbright Commission that was established by the US Congress to supervise the global Fulbright Fellows program. In 2014 she served as vice-chair of the commission, and on November 12, 2015, the board elected Skandera Trombley as chair.