UMass Amherst Commonwealth Honors College Dean Gretchen Gerzina Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

UMass Amherst: News Archive

AMHERST, Mass. – Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina, dean of the Commonwealth Honors College and the Paul Murray Kendall Chair in Biography at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is among 228 accomplished scholars, scientists, writers, artists and civic, business and philanthropic leaders elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.The incoming class, which was announced today, includes philanthropist and singer-songwriter John Legend, award-winning actress Carol Burnett, Xerox Corporation chairman Ursula Burns, mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani, immunologist James P. Allison and writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Founded in 1780, the academy is one of the country’s oldest learned societies and independent policy research centers, convening leaders from the academic, business and government sectors to respond to the challenges facing and opportunities available to the nation and the world. Members contribute to academy publications and science, engineering and technology policy studies, works on global security and international affairs, the humanities, arts, education and American institutions and the public good.
The new class will be inducted at a ceremony on Oct. 7 in Cambridge, Mass.
“I am enormously honored and delighted to have been elected to this august society,” says Gerzina. “Just looking at the list of members past and present has been very humbling.”
“I am thrilled that the AAAS has honored Professor Gerzina,” says UMass Amherst Provost Katherine Newman. “When we recruited her to become the dean of the Commonwealth Honors College, we recognized that we had added an academic star to our faculty. To find such a distinguished biographer was also a daughter of Springfield, an authority on the history of our region, and a well-known public intellectual, truly completed a stellar package.” 
“It is an honor to welcome this new class of exceptional women and men as part of our distinguished membership,” says Don Randel, chair of the academy’s board of directors. “Their talents and expertise will enrich the life of the academy ...

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