In recommending Ponder to the Board of Governors, Broad said: "I am delighted today to have the opportunity to bring a talented North Carolinian back home to the community where she grew up. Anne Ponder brings to UNC Asheville a deep-rooted love of the region, a solid reputation as an energetic and creative administrator, and a passionate belief in the enduring value of liberal arts education. Throughout her career, she has made community involvement and resource development key priorities, a tradition she has pledged to continue at UNC Asheville. We are most fortunate to gain a leader with this wealth of talent, enthusiasm, and commitment."

An independent liberal arts institution in central New Hampshire, Colby-Sawyer College enrolls nearly 1,000 students and offers 16 undergraduate degree programs in eight academic departments. The college places strong emphasis on community building, and 98 percent of Colby-Sawyer students complete at least one internship prior to graduation.

Ponder grew up in Asheville, where both her mother and grandmother were public school teachers. After receiving an undergraduate degree in English education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1971, she also went on to earn master�s and doctoral degrees in English there, completing her studies in 1979. While a student in Chapel Hill, she was inducted into the Order of the Valkyries and served as women�s attorney general and associate justice of the Student Supreme Court.

Ponder began her academic career at Elon College (now Elon University) near Greensboro in 1977 as an instructor of English and communications. Over the next nine years, she served as founding director of the college�s honors program and rose through the academic ranks to tenured associate professor, along the way earning the Outstanding Faculty Member Award and the Daniels-Danieley Award for Excellence in Teaching. She joined nearby Guilford College in 1986 as associate academic dean and was named acting dean in 1988. The following year, Ponder was recruited to Kenyon College in Ohio as professor of English and drama and academic dean. Five years later, she assumed the concurrent title of vice president for information technology.

In 1996, Ponder was named president of Colby-Sawyer College. In that role, she has led the development of a long-range strategic plan and new liberal education curriculum, overseen a growing volume of capital construction, expanded Colby-Sawyer�s interaction with the local community, and successfully completed a $40-million capital campaign. During her tenure, the college�s endowment has more than quadrupled.

An expert in programs for gifted and talented college students, Ponder is a frequent faculty member of the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education and has written and spoken widely on strategic planning, fundraising and resource development, and institutional effectiveness. A past president of the North Carolina Honors Association and the National Collegiate Honors Council, she currently serves as treasurer of the New Hampshire College and University Council and on the Advisory Council of the Appalachian College Association. An avid proponent of community service, she has served as a trustee of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic/Mary Hitchcock Memorial Hospital, as a director at Kendal at Hanover, and as an incorporator of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.

The daughter of Herschel and Eleanor Ponder of Asheville, Ponder is married to Christopher Brookhouse, a writer and publisher previously on the English faculty at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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