Former Dean of the Faculty Safa Zaki — whose term as president of Bowdoin began on July 1 — was officially inaugurated on Oct. 14. 

Bowdoin’s presidential search committee unanimously selected Zaki in March to become the sixteenth president of Bowdoin and the first woman to hold the position. 

Among the individuals who spoke at the inauguration were Williams College President Maud S. Mandel, Chair of the Bowdoin College Board of Trustees Scott Perper, and Vice Chair of the Brunswick Town Council Abby King.

In her speech at the inauguration, Mandel said Zaki was a “superb choice for president.” 

“Her sights will never stray from our goal of teaching students the joys of generous enthusiasm and of cooperation for the common good,” Mandel said.

During her speech, King noted that Brunswick was fortunate to have someone of Zaki’s “expertise, experience, and priorities” join Bowdoin’s community.

“We greatly look forward to working together to navigate and grow through the transformative time ahead,” King said.

Both leading up to and during the inauguration, members of the search committee spoke about both the qualitative and quantitative aspects of Zaki’s work, adding that such a background uniquely qualified  her to serve as president, another interdisciplinary role.

“One of the beautiful things she will bring to campus is her ability to transcend traditional borders,” Vice Dean for Natural Sciences at Johns Hopkins University and a co-chair on the committee Bertrand Garcia-Moreno said. 

In Bowdoin’s announcement of the inauguration, Perper wrote that “Bowdoin has found a distinguished scholar and leader with a global perspective who believes deeply in the transformative power of a liberal arts education.”

Afterward, Zaki also discussed her vision for her time in her new role.

“As president, I am deeply committed to finding ways to continue to open doors, both for our students who are here at Bowdoin now and for our future students, students who may not see a well-trodden path to get here, but who can contribute so much to our community and to the world,” she said. “I am eager to do that work together.” 

During her tenure as the dean of the faculty at Williams, Zaki helped found the Rice Center for Teaching to advance faculty pedagogies and assisted in launching the Grants Office.

As a professor of psychology and chair of the cognitive studies program, she conducted research on how people divide the world into categories and explored computational models of cognitive processes.