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President, DePauw University
Achievements: As president of DePauw University, Lori White oversees a campus of more than 1,900 students and 600 faculty and staff and a total annual budget of $115 million. Since she took over, DePauw has launched two academic schools: The School of Business and Leadership, in 2023, and the Creative School, in 2024. In February, she announced $200 million in gifts to the university, including the largest single gift in DePauw’s history, $150 million from an anonymous donor to support the school’s Bold and Gold 2027 strategy. DePauw also received a $32 million Lilly Endowment Inc. grant in support of the endowment’s Campus Growing Green and Gold Initiative. Under White’s leadership, DePauw has steadily increased first-year and total student enrollment. The university now has almost 200 more students than it did in 2021. White also has elevated women’s leadership at DePauw—five of her seven cabinet members are women.
Career track: White has worked in higher education for more than 40 years at seven universities, including the University of California at Irvine; Georgetown, Stanford and San Diego State universities; the University of Southern California; Southern Methodist University; and Washington University in St. Louis. Before becoming president of DePauw, she served as vice president for student affairs at Washington University.
Influential moment: Earlier this year, White received the Fred Turner Award for outstanding service to the student affairs profession. The award is considered a lifetime achievement award for student affairs.
Givebacks: White is a board member of the Council of Independent Colleges and vice chair of the boards for the Great Lakes Colleges Association and the North Coast Athletic Conference.
Influential person: Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. “Dr. Rice has been my mentor since she was provost at Stanford and I was a graduate student many years ago. She has been a role model, inspiration and mentor extraordinaire and was one of many who encouraged me to consider becoming a
college president.”
Advice for young women: “Dream as big as you can imagine and do not let those imaginary voices of doubt prevent you from going for it. We (and you) are far more capable than we often give ourselves credit for.”•
Check out more Women of Influence honorees.
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