Carmen Twillie Ambar

Carmen Twillie Ambar is the 15th president of Oberlin College and Conservatory and the institution’s first African American leader since its founding in 1833. She came to Oberlin in 2017, after serving nine years as president of Cedar Crest College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

At Oberlin, Ambar launched a review process that led to the adoption of One Oberlin, a set of recommendations that established a new vision for the college. To help foster community, she created the Connect Cleveland Initiative, which sends all first-year students to Cleveland for a day of service and experiential learning, and Community Connection, which has vastly improved relations with the off-campus community. Ambar also promoted Sustained Dialogue, an approach that has helped bridge differences among those on campus.

In 2020, she established the Presidential Initiative on Racial Equity and Diversity to help guide action on and study issues of violence, police-community relationships, and racial injustice.

Ambar holds a bachelor’s degree in international economics from Georgetown University, a master’s degree in public administration from Princeton University, and a law degree from Columbia University.