The City University of New York has announced the appointment of Ann Kirschner, dean emerita of CUNY’s Macaulay Honors College, as interim president of Hunter College. Kirschner brings more than two decades of experience in higher education, including 15 years in senior administrative and academic roles at CUNY.
Hunter College was established in 1870 as the Female Normal Academy, the first institution to offer free public higher education for women in New York City. Today, the selective campus enrolls 18,000 undergraduate students and nearly 6,000 graduate students. Women make up 66 percent of the undergraduate student body.
“It will be a great privilege to serve as interim president of Hunter College during a time that is pivotal for Hunter and higher education,” said Dr. Kirschner. “As a New Yorker from an immigrant family, I understand the many ways that public education can transform lives. Hunter has provided generations of students the opportunity to advance academically and professionally – and those graduates have strengthened the city, the region and the world. I look forward to working with the talented Hunter faculty, staff, and students to advance its storied record of success.”
Dr. Kirschner served as dean of the Macaulay Honors College, a role she held from 2006 to 2016, after which she was appointed as special adviser to the chancellor for strategic partnerships. From 2017 to 2022, Dr. Kirschner was a university professor on the faculty of the CUNY Graduate Center.
Professor Kirschner is the author of Sala’s Gift: My Mother’s Holocaust Story (Free Press, 2007). The book tells the story of her mother’s wartime rescue of letters from Nazi labor camps. It has been published in German, Polish, Italian, French, Czech and Mandarin. She also authored Lady at the OK Corral: The True Story of Josephine Marcus Earp (Harper, 2014).
After graduating from New York City public schools, Dr. Kirschner earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University at Buffalo and a master’s degree in English from the University of Virginia. She received a Ph.D. in English from Princeton University.