Home Programs & Services Women in Higher Education

2008 Donna Shavlik Award Recipient—Adrian Tinsley

President Emerita, Bridgewater State College Adrian Tinsley receiving the 2008 Donna Shavlik Award from ACE Vice President, Claire Van Ummerson.

Adrian Tinsley served Bridgewater State College as its president for 13 years. Since retiring from Bridgewater's presidency in June 2002, Tinsley has continued to work part time in higher education in various consulting and teaching roles.

From 2002 to 2005, she worked with CONNECT: A Southeastern Massachusetts Public Higher Education Partnership, which coordinates academic and administrative planning by bringing together the regional public colleges and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Tinsley was a visiting scholar during 2003–04 with the Harvard Graduate School of Education and served as "President-in-Residence" for the master's degree students in the higher education program.

Director of the Office of Women in Higher Education Donna Burns Phillips congratulates Adrian Tinsley, 2008 Donna Shavlik Award recipient.

While serving as Bridgewater's president, Tinsley was active in regional and national professional associations. She served six years (two terms) on the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education (CIHE) of the New England Association of Schools and Colleges, New England's regional accrediting association. Her service included two years as vice chair of CIHE and two years as chair. Additionally, she served a three-year term (1996–99) on the board of directors of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and contributed to that organization's Committee on Professional Development. She also served on the American Council on Education's Commission on Women in Higher Education and Commission on Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness.

A native of New York City who grew up in Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC, Tinsley received her bachelors degree in psychology at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania. She went on to earn a master of arts degree in English literature from the University of Washington and a PhD in English literature from Cornell University. She also studied at the University of Bristol in England as a Fulbright Fellow and at Harvard University.

Donna Burns Phillips, Adrian Tinsley, and Claire Van Ummersen.

At the time of her appointment as Bridgewater's 10th president—and first women president—Tinsley was executive vice president and provost at Glassboro State College (now Rowan University) in New Jersey, a position she held from 1985 to 1989.

In addition to her other activities, Tinsley is a founding faculty member of the Bryn Mawr/HERS (Higher Education Resource Services) Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration, a residential program held each summer since 1975 at Bryn Mawr College, and she taught in the HERS Management Institute and the HERS South Africa program at Wellesley College. In these roles, she has helped thousands of women prepare for leadership positions in higher education. She continues to serve on the executive committee of the HERS board.

Tinsley has published a book and numerous scholarly and popular articles and has made regional and national presentations to a wide variety of academic and professional organizations. Her most recent published work is "Academic Revitalization," which appears in Academic Turnarounds: Restoring Vitality to Challenged American Colleges and Universities, edited by Terrence MacTaggart and published by ACE/Praeger in April 2007.

In recognition of her accomplishments and leadership on behalf of women in higher education, she received the 1999 Leadership Award from the Massachusetts State Network, formerly known as the Massachusetts chapter of the American Council on Education's National Identification Program.

Tinsley makes her home in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, and Denver, Colorado.

Please direct questions about this page to:
owhe@ace.nche.edu
This page last updated: 07/16/2008