Catherine L. Summa Named Director
of Wellesley College's Science Center

WELLESLEY, Mass.— Catherine L. Summa has been named director of Wellesley College's Science Center. She began her new position on Jan. 15.

"Science, math, and technology literacy are important skills for 21st Century global citizenship," said Catherine Summa, the new director of Wellesley's Science Center. "As a leader in liberal arts, there can be no better place than Wellesley College to prepare women to address the challenges of the future."

Summa has most recently been a professor of geoscience and chair of the Geoscience Department at Winona State University in Minnesota. She graduated from Wellesley College with honors as a geology major in 1983 and received her Ph.D. in earth, atmospheric and planetary sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1993.  She also earned an M.S. in education with a science education focus from Winona State University in 2001. At Winona and throughout Minnesota, she has been a leader in science education and promoting scientific interest among non-scientists and the public.  

The new position of director of the Science Center was created this year as a combination of the administrative and academic leadership roles.

"Cathy Summa's appointment consolidates two Science Center positions—administrative director and faculty director—into a single, high-level role, one that not only oversees the administrative operations of the Science Center but reaches out beyond the Science Center to forge new programmatic partnerships with faculty, students and staff across the campus and to extend the visibility and reputation of Science at Wellesley in the larger world," said Andrew Shennan, provost and dean of the college. "Cathy brings to this vital work a distinguished record of accomplishment as a scientific educator, dynamism and creativity as an administrator, and a commitment to the mission of the college dating back to her own undergraduate days here."

Summa's arrival has been hailed by Wellesley's Science Center community.

"We are confident that Cathy's vision and extensive experience as a leader in science education will provide not just the Science Center community but also the college community as a whole with new ideas for extending the excitement of science beyond our walls," said Nancy Kolodny, the Cohen/Heller professor in the health sciences and member of the chemistry department and the neuroscience program.

Summa looks forward to supporting and advancing the myriad facets of the Science Center.

"Science, math, and technology literacy are important skills for 21st Century global citizenship," Summa said. "As a leader in liberal arts, there can be no better place than Wellesley College to prepare women to address the challenges of the future. I am both delighted and privileged to have the opportunity to return to Wellesley to work with the College community to promote the sciences across campus and beyond."

Since 1875, Wellesley College has been a leader in providing an excellent liberal arts education for women who will make a difference in the world. Its 500-acre campus near Boston is home to 2,300 undergraduate students from all 50 states and 75 countries.

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