List of presidents of Dartmouth College

Dartmouth College is a private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. It was founded in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, a Yale graduate and Congregational minister, through a royal charter issued by John Wentworth in the name of King George III.^[1][2] The charter created a college for the education of Native Americans and others in the "liberal arts and sciences", connecting it to Wheelock's earlier Charity School.^[1] Named for William Legge, 2nd Earl of Dartmouth, the institution is the ninth oldest college in the United States and the last founded under colonial rule.^[1][3]

President of Dartmouth College
Incumbent Sian Beilock since June 12, 2023
Appointer	Board of Trustees
Term length	No term limit
Inaugural holder	Eleazar Wheelock
Formation	December 13, 1769 (255 years ago) (1769-12-13)
Website	president.dartmouth.edu

The president of Dartmouth College is the institution’s chief executive officer and chief adviser to the Board of Trustees. Under the Board’s bylaws, the president has "general charge and control of the College and its affairs," including the organization of the faculties; responsibility for the conduct of educational and administrative operations and internal discipline; authority to execute instruments on the College’s behalf; and the power to appoint and remove officers and administrators consistent with Board policies. The president serves as a trustee ex officio and is a voting member of the Board’s Executive Committee, and an ex officio non-voting member of its other standing committees, with recusals required when the Board considers presidential compensation or performance. In the event of the president’s death, absence, or disability, the Board may designate an interim president and define the scope of interim authority.^[4]

The College’s 1769 charter vests governance in the "Trustees of Dartmouth College," authorizing them to elect officers, grant degrees, and "displace and remove" officers as necessary; in modern practice, degrees approved by the Trustees are conferred by the president at commencement.^[4][5] Dartmouth’s status as a private corporation governed by its Board, and the inviolability of its charter, were affirmed by the United States Supreme Court in Dartmouth College v. Woodward (1819).^[6][7]

Since 1769, nineteen individuals have held the office, a line known as the "Wheelock Succession."^[8] The current president, Sian Beilock, was elected by the Board on July 21, 2022, took office on June 12, and was inaugurated on September 22, 2023, becoming the first woman to lead Dartmouth.^[9][10][11]

Presidents

Presidents

No.	Image	Name	Years	Notes	Ref.
1		Eleazar Wheelock	1769–1779	President and founder of Dartmouth College. Not a Dartmouth alumnus.	[12][13]
2		John Wheelock	1779–1815	Dartmouth alumnus (1771)	[12][14]
3		Francis Brown	1815–1820	Dartmouth alumnus (1805)	[12][15]
4		Daniel Dana	1820–1821	Dartmouth alumnus (1788)	[12][16]
5		Bennet Tyler	1822–1828	Not a Dartmouth alumnus	[12][17]
6		Nathan Lord	1828–1863	Not a Dartmouth alumnus	[12][18]
7		Asa Dodge Smith	1863–1877	Dartmouth alumnus (1830)	[12][19]
8		Samuel Colcord Bartlett	1877–1892	Dartmouth alumnus (1836)	[12][20]
9		William Jewett Tucker	1893–1909	Dartmouth alumnus (1861)	[12][21]
10		Ernest Fox Nichols	1909–1916	Professor of Physics (1898–1903). Not a Dartmouth alumnus.	[12][22]
11		Ernest Martin Hopkins	1916–1945	Dartmouth alumnus (1901)	[12][23]
12		John Sloan Dickey	1945–1970	Dartmouth alumnus (1929)	[12][24]
13		John George Kemeny	1970–1981	Professor of Mathematics. Not a Dartmouth alumnus.	[12][25]
14		David T. McLaughlin	1981–1987	Member of the Board of Trustees. Dartmouth alumnus (1954; Tuck '1955).	[12][26]
15		James O. Freedman	1987–1998	Not a Dartmouth alumnus	[12][27]
16		James Wright	1998–2009	Dean of the Faculty; Professor of History. Not a Dartmouth alumnus.	[12][28]
17		Jim Yong Kim	2009–2012	Department of Anthropology faculty. Not a Dartmouth alumnus.	[12][29]
18		Philip J. Hanlon	2013–2023	Lewis Professor of Mathematics, Dartmouth alumnus (1977)	[12][30][31]
19		Sian Beilock	2023–present	Not a Dartmouth alumna	[12][32][33]