Whittier College will celebrate the inauguration of Linda Oubré as the College’s 15th president with a week of special events on campus. The investiture ceremony will take place on February 23 in the Donald E. Graham Athletics Center at 3 p.m.
Events include a student festival, a lecture on equity and inclusion in the entertainment industry, and the College’s annual Feinberg Lecture with guest speaker author, musician, and anti-racism and anti-Semitism activist Daryl Davis, among others. The inauguration ceremony will feature an academic procession of Whittier’s faculty, staff, and trustees, as well as invited guests.
Oubré, who took office on July 1, 2018, is the first person of color to lead Whittier College.
“I am honored to serve as president of Whittier College, an institution that is a model for the nation,” said Oubré. “As a first-generation college student, I know that higher education can change lives. And, in an environment like this, when you touch one life, you touch a whole family, sometimes a whole community.”
In addition to Oubré’s inaugural address, Jim Brown, chairman of the Board of Trustees and Detrick Manning ’19, president of the Associated Students of Whittier College will deliver remarks.
“I am thrilled to formally inaugurate President Oubré and celebrate the beginning of a new chapter for the College,” said Brown. “Her innovative and creative viewpoint has been a great asset to the campus already and will continue to be of great value for Whittier’s diverse student body.”
The reception, which will immediately follow the ceremony, will feature an Innovative Showcase in the College’s Science & Learning Center. The Showcase, created around the theme, A Model for the Nation, Innovating for the World, will present student and faculty work in a number of fields.
A native of Los Angeles, Oubré joined Whittier after serving as Dean of the College of Business at San Francisco State University (SFU) for six years.
Before SFSU, Oubré was executive director of corporate relations and business development, and chief diversity officer for the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis. With decades of corporate experience, she previously served as president and CEO of LSO Ventures, a new venture investment and consulting firm, and was one of the founders and president of BriteSmile, a company that she took public on NASDAQ. She has also held leadership roles in various companies including Tri Com Ventures, Times Mirror Company, and the Walt Disney Company.
Oubré holds an Ed.D. in higher education management from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a B.A. in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
To learn more about the inauguration of President Oubré, visit the Whittier College inauguration webpage.
