—Systemic change begins with personal change—
Dr. Link has more than 20 years of experience across a broad range of institutions of higher education, from large public and private universities to small private colleges. She has built programs, increased resources, enhanced institutional visibility, and created innovative interdisciplinary and experiential approaches to education.
Prior to Allegheny, she served for six years (2013) as dean of Temple University Rome. She strategically expanded and revamped curriculum to enhance enrollment by including more contemporary topics and developed new courses and internships. She was instrumental in leading recruitment initiatives to achieve an enrollment that was the highest in the 52-year history of the campus.
Her professional and academic accolades include membership in the Stanford University Associates, honoring her long-term service to Stanford; selection as a Presidential Fellow of the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA); the Administrator of the Year Award from the Barnard College Student Government Association; the Elizabeth Deering Hanscom Fellowship in the Humanities at Yale; and the Pi Mu Iota Award for the highest achievement in the Italian Department at Stanford.
She serves on the Climate Leadership Steering Committee of the Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments. The steering committee is the chief oversight body of the Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments, signed by presidents of higher education institutions that are taking action on climate change and preparing students through research and education to solve the challenges of the 21st century. She serves on the NCAA Honors Committee and is a member of The International Women’s Forum.
A scholar of Italian art and literature, She is a professor at Allegheny. She has taught at Temple University Rome, Barnard, New York University, Columbia, and Yale. She graduated from Stanford and earned her MA and PhD from Yale in Italian language and literature. Dr. Link and her spouse, Jeff Link, have three sons, Jason, Alexander, and Zachary.
Hilary describes her commitments as achieving some success and some failure, but learned from both. We start with her personal experiences and memories of ice skating and cross country skiing as a child leading to her sometimes painful lessons today. More than just ice skating again, she took lessons with her child. Listen to her for the lesson and why it was painful, but I'll share that she learned to wear a helmet. She also talked about driving less, which led to what she could do with her community not to accept that not driving has to be hard, but how to improve the situation. She talked about eating less meat, which I heard creating more connection within family. From the personal, we moved to the systemic. As the president of an august institution and connected to peers at peer organizations, she can influence within Allegheny and among university presidents and across academia. It's nice to talk about change and sustainability. It's nice to change institutions. But she points out, everyone sees what you do and your personal behavior affects others. I don't think this episode is the last we'll hear of Dr. Link. I believe she'll implement some of the ideas that came up during her actions and this conversation. Stay tuned.
Allegheny College was one of the first 10 institutions of higher education in the United States to be declared carbon neutral by an organization called Second Nature. Readers of my blog know my skepticism of claims of "net zero" or "carbon neutral," but I look for people in leadership positions acting genuinely and authentically toward sustainability. So I bring you Allegheny's president, Dr. Hilary Link. She shares the college's experience starting a decade ago, before her arrival, and its institutional long-term action. She also shares her helping her peers do similar work at other schools. Allegheny College took on the challenge without a substantial endowment, a large staff, or a big budget. For the last five years, the College's Environmental Science and Sustainability program has been listed among the top five in the U.S. for its interdisciplinary, experiential approach. Like most guests, she agreed to share her environmental values and commit to live by them personally.