Vassar Hosts Delegation of Japanese Faculty and Administrators for Discussions on Women’s Leadership

The delegation included professors and administrators from Kyoto University, Tokyo University, and Ochanomizu University, as well as Ochanomizu University President Yasuko Sasaki and Akito Tani, a member of that university’s board of trustees.

President Sasaki, who led the delegation, became more deeply acquainted with Vassar when she and President Elizabeth Bradley served as keynote speakers at a conference on leadership in higher education in March 2024 on the Ochanomizu campus in Tokyo.

The 16 Japanese scholars took part in a pair of discussions with Vassar administrators and faculty members during their visit to Vassar’s campus. 

The first session was hosted by:

• Victoria Grantham, Vice President of Communications
• Wendy Maragh Taylor, Associate Dean of the College for Student Growth and Engagement
• Kimberly Williams Brown, Associate Professor of Education and Director of Engaged Pluralism

The second was hosted by:

• Hiromi Tsuchiya Dollase, Professor and Chair of Chinese and Japanese
• Susan Hiner, Professor of French and Francophone Studies and Faculty Director of Research Development
• Anne Brancky, Associate Professor and Chair of French and Francophone Studies

Many of the Vassar panelists said they had come to Vassar after serving in various leadership roles at the College and elsewhere, and all said Vassar’s culture supported leadership roles for women. Grantham said the collaborative mindset she employed at her previous jobs in private and nonprofit communications, as well as a stint as Senior Executive Director of Communications and Marketing at Fordham Law School, had provided her with the skills to continue her work at Vassar. Maragh Taylor said she often employs the skills she learned as a public school teacher, then as a licensed clinician, and later as a faculty member to foster relationships with her students—as well as with those on her administrative team—at Vassar.

Hiner said serving on a committee that evaluates faculty performance had been an enlightening and satisfying part of her Vassar career. And Dollase said she had found that taking on new responsibilities outside of her academic work—including a stint as Director of the Asian Studies Program and as the chief organizer of the Vassar Summer Language and Culture Program at Ochanomizu University—had enhanced her academic experience. “So, say ‘yes’ to whatever opportunities come your way,” she told the Japanese visitors.

At a luncheon at the President’s House prior to the sessions with Vassar faculty and administrators, President Bradley noted that research shows that having women in leadership (in institutions, in political roles, and in families) is linked to more pro-social investments such as investments in health and education. Still, only about 30 percent of colleges and universities in the United States are led by women. The fact that you are all getting to know each other is a path toward leadership,” Bradley said, “and when you achieve it you will have a peer group to rely on.”