President's Bio
Esther L. Barazzone, Ph.D.Esther Barazzone became President of Chatham University in 1992 after a career as a faculty member and administrator at Hamilton and Kirkland Colleges, the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, and Philadelphia University. Dr. Barazzone holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in European Intellectual History from Columbia University, where she was a Fellow of the Faculty. Dr. Barazzone was a Charter Scholar in the first graduating class of New College in Sarasota, Florida, where she earned her B.A. in Philosophy and History. She received a US Student Fulbright award to Spain and studied at the Wharton School of Business Administration and at Harvard University’s Institute for Educational Management.
Dr. Barazzone has led Chatham through a period of major institutional renewal and expansion leading to national recognition and elevation to university status in 2007. Since 1992, the institution has added graduate programs through the doctoral level, reinvigorated its undergraduate program, renewed and expanded its physical campus and infrastructure, engaged in significant fundraising, and assumed a new leadership role in the local and national community.
Because of her leadership, Chatham eradicated a decade of major operating deficits, doubled its endowment and quadrupled enrollment from approximately 620 students in 1992 to 2,100 today. The campus infrastructure has been revitalized through more than $75 million in construction, renovation and acquisition of 28 structures, as well as the creation of a modern technological infrastructure that includes wireless networking. In 2008 Chatham received the 388-acre Eden Hall Farm Campus in Richland Township, Pa. as a gift from Eden Hall Foundation, making Chatham western Pennsylvania’s largest university campus in acreage. The historic 39-acre Shadyside Campus on Woodland Road also expanded in 2008 to include the 250,000-square foot Chatham Eastside, less than one mile away in Pittsburgh’s growing East Liberty & Shadyside neighborhoods.
Major program development at Chatham has included the creation of many new degree and certificate programs (undergraduate, graduate and continuing education), a Division III athletic program (including western Pennsylvania’s first varsity women’s ice hockey team), and University-wide initiatives such as the Center for Women’s Entrepreneurship; the Pennsylvania Center for Women, Politics and Public Policy; the Pittsburgh Teachers Institute; the Rachel Carson Institute; The Regional Women’s Initiative; and the Global Focus program, which won the Institute of International Education’s Andrew Heiskell Award for Innovation in International Education in 2003. Dr. Barazzone and Chatham’s turnaround have been featured in many national publications including the Chronicle of Higher Education.
Dr. Barazzone has traveled extensively throughout her career and joined several international delegations, including a CIES delegation to Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam in 2008, a DAAD study trip to Germany in 2007, and the World Affairs Council’s US Delegation to Egypt (2005). She is an active leader in the national higher education community and has served on many boards including the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES), the Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN), the Presidents Climate Commitment, and the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania (AICUP). Dr. Barazzone is also a member of the Boards of the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (Executive Committee, Executive Compensation Committee, and Committee on Community Health), Dollar Bank (Audit and Compliance Committee), Allegheny Conference on Community Development, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, and World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh.
Dr. Barazzone has received many honors for her work at Chatham and in the community, including History Maker in Education, Senator H. John Heinz III History Center (2006); Italian American Person of the Year (2005); Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania (2001); the Vectors Pittsburgh Woman of the Year in Education (1999); and the YWCA Leadership Award in Education (1999). Her work in international education has been recognized with the University Medal from Fatima Jinnah Women’s University in Rawalpindi, Pakistan (2001) and honorary doctorates from Seoul Women’s University in Seoul, Korea (2000) and Doshisha Women’s College in Kyoto, Japan (1999), as well as the Gandhi, King, Ikeda Award for Outstanding Leadership for Peace and Humanitarianism from Morehouse College (2004). She has also been recognized for her work on behalf of the advancement of women by the Susan B. Anthony Leadership Award from the Women’s Leadership Assembly (1999).
