Dr. Ellen McCulloch-Lovell
President
Marlboro College
Marlboro, Vermont 05344
E-mail : emlovell@marlboro.edu
Off/Fax : (802) 258-9244/258-9290

In a career that spans the arts, national policy and higher education, Ellen McCulloch-Lovell has demonstrated her commitment to cause-driven organizations, spending most of her career promoting individual creativity and artistic innovation in society. Beginning with her first job with the Vermont Arts Council-—bringing poets into rural classrooms—through her more recent role directing the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Arts and Culture, McCulloch-Lovell simultaneously supported the arts while making them accessible to society at large.

In her 13 years at the Vermont Arts Council, including eight as director, McCulloch-Lovell created its artist in residence, touring, museum and folk arts programs while attracting state, federal and private funding to Vermont’s cultural organizations. In 1983 she co-founded the Governor’s Institutes of Vermont, which bring high school students to college campuses for experiential learning and community involvement.

McCulloch-Lovell developed her vision of broad citizen involvement and civic education in Washington, D.C. where she worked for 10 years as U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy’s chief of staff. In her tenure in the Capitol, McCulloch-Lovell gained an important understanding of the broader policy arena and how cultural, economic, environmental and foreign policies intersect. The experience fueled her interest in the political process in both Montpelier and Washington. She further combined her focus on education and culture with her fascination for public policy in her next position, as director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. There she worked with entertainment industry and government leaders, with scholars and with artists to strengthen the role of arts and humanities in American life. Tapped in 1997 to head the White House Millennium Council, McCulloch-Lovell worked with President and Mrs. Clinton to create, among other national programs, Save America’s Treasures, with a mission to preserve such cultural legacies as the 1812 battle flag—the Star-Spangled Banner—and the home of Harriet Tubman. With her background in non-profit leadership, she was well prepared to initiate the White House Conferences on Philanthropy and on Cultural Diplomacy.

In the two jobs she simultaneously held after leaving the White House, McCulloch-Lovell continued her work supporting artists and educators and making the arts, history and culture accessible to Americans. She headed the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project, an American Folklife Center initiative to collect first-hand accounts from veteran and civilian participants of every war the United States has engaged in since World War I. She also served as executive director of the Center for Arts and Culture—a think tank exploring, through research, forums and publications, the dynamic between public policies and cultural life

Ellen McCulloch-Lovell has devoted her life to promoting a healthy nonprofit sector, believing that open and informed inquiry, freedom of expression and the creation of civic space are crucial to a thriving community and to our nation’s democracy. Marlboro College shares that devotion and is proud and honored to welcome her as our eighth president.

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