Dear Friends and Members of the Brown Community,

It is with great pleasure that I write to report that the Corporation of Brown University has unanimously and enthusiastically approved the early extension of President Christina H. Paxson’s appointment for an additional three years, to June 30, 2025.

Now in her eighth year as Brown’s president, Christina Paxson is a proven leader of extraordinary ability, enormous energy, unshakeable values and boundless passion for Brown. Her impact on the University has been transformational, leading Brown forward with vision and purpose, setting a standard for excellence in all that Brown does, and elevating the institution’s standing among the world’s great universities.

President Paxson was the architect for the 10-year strategic plan, Building on Distinction: A New Plan for Brown, which launched in 2014. In the five complete fiscal years after the plan’s launch, Brown added about 90 faculty members engaged in scholarship and teaching, invested $528 million in capital projects, and awarded $927 million in scholarship aid, aligned with our goal of keeping a Brown education affordable for talented students from all economic backgrounds. In Fiscal Year 2019, Brown expended $196 million in grant funding toward cutting-edge research across the humanities and the life, physical and social sciences. Brown’s annual research spending has grown by nearly 30%, with the grant portfolio in the Division of Biology and Medicine having increased 109% since 2013.

In deciding to extend President Paxson’s appointment at this time, more than two full years before the expiration of her current term, the Corporation has expressed its absolute and unqualified confidence in her leadership, and its conviction that the most certain way to ensure the University’s continued momentum and success without pause is to keep Christina Paxson at Brown.

In addition to the achievements noted above, highlights of growth at Brown under President Paxson’s leadership include the following accomplishments:

• Creation of numerous academic centers, institutes and initiatives to advance research and educational excellence: the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute, Native American and Indigenous Studies Initiative, Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship, Data Science Initiative and Brown Arts Initiative.
• Expansion of Brown’s brain science institute, renamed the Robert J. and Nancy D. Carney Institute for Brain Science with a $100 million gift that established it as one of the best-endowed university brain institutes in the country.
• Construction and major renovation to foster dynamic and world-class teaching and learning, including the Engineering Research Center; Friedman Hall; the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship’s home at 249 Thayer St.; the Stephen Robert Hall expansion of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs; a new home at 164 Angell St. that houses the Carney Institute for Brain Science, Data Science Initiative, Center for Computational and Molecular Biology, Department of Education and Annenberg Institute for School Reform. New and ongoing construction includes site work for an innovative Performing Arts Center and a new Center for Lacrosse and Soccer.
• Deepening the University’s valued relationship with neighbors and partners in Providence and Rhode Island through an increasing number of strategic projects, fueling economic innovation and production. This includes private-public partnerships that anchored the development of South Street Landing and the Wexford Innovation Center (the new home of Brown’s School of Professional Studies) in the Jewelry District; the Brown and the Innovation Economy initiative; expansion of local collaborations through the Nelson Center for Entrepreneurship; and expanded support of Providence Public Schools.
• Launch of Pathways to Diversity and Inclusion: An Action Plan for Brown, creating a national model across higher education for diversity and inclusion.
• Opening the Undocumented, First-Generation College and Low-Income Student Center, a successful partnership with undergraduate students and the first of its kind in the country.
• Strengthening support for ROTC and veterans, including plans to become need-blind for undergraduate veterans, which builds on earlier leadership in restoring relationships with the Navy, Marines and Air Force (adding to Brown’s Army Reserve Officer Training Corps relationship).
• Brown becoming a "no loan" university with The Brown Promise, reducing financial barriers for the most talented students to choose Brown by replacing all loans packaged in financial aid awards for new and returning undergraduates with scholarships.
• Establishing BrownConnect to provide Brown students with increased support for summer internships, research and funding, and later expanding the initiative to enable alumni to connect with each other to extend their professional networks and cultivate career connections.
• Kickoff of the $3 billion BrownTogether comprehensive campaign, the most ambitious in Brown’s history, which to-date has raised $2.3 billion.
• Leading Brown through efforts to strengthen its financial position through enhanced budgeting practices, first-in-class investment management, and an endowment that has surpassed the $4.2 billion mark, the highest in Brown’s history.
• Leading Brown in pioneering sustainability efforts that include establishing an aggressive goal to cut campus greenhouse gas emissions by 75% by 2025 and to achieve net-zero emissions no later than 2040.
• Engaging alumni in the life of the institution and encouraging our extended community to remember and celebrate the University’s rich history and to imagine its exciting future, including during the Celebration of Brown’s 250th anniversary in 2014-15; the 125 Years of Women at Brown conference that took place in 2017; the Black Alumni Reunion and recognition of the 1968 Black Student Walkout in fall 2018; and the more recent Open Curriculum at 50 celebration that launched last May.

The resounding success of President Paxson’s service to Brown is driving the University toward fulfilling the ambitious vision established early in her presidency. Brown is achieving higher levels of distinction and raising its stature as one of the world’s leading universities — one that integrates innovative education with cutting-edge research, all in the service of society.

A defining attribute of President Paxson’s leadership is that she is always the first to say that Brown’s success would not be possible without our amazing students, who anchor everything we do; exceptional faculty, who are dedicated teachers and scholars; an extraordinary team of senior leaders and staff, who work tirelessly to help drive Brown forward; and a committed community of alumni, parents and friends, whose support is truly inspiring and essential to achieving our highest aspirations.

On behalf of the Corporation, I am pleased to express our deepest gratitude to President Paxson for all that she has done, and will do in the years to come, to ensure that Brown pursues its mission at the highest levels of excellence, and continues to elevate its value to  our community, the nation, and the world. We look forward to the many ways that Brown will continue to thrive under President Paxson’s superb leadership, fully confident that the University’s best days lie ahead.

​Sincerely,

Samuel M. Mencoff
Chancellor, Brown University