Clayton Spencer

Davidson native Clayton Spencer became president at Bates College in Maine in July and will be formally installed in October. In an interview last week with the college’s hometown newspaper, the Lewiston-Auburn Sun Journal, the former federal prosecutor said she did set out to become a college president.

Ms. Spencer, the daughter of former Davidson College president Sam Spencer Jr. and wife Ava, is a former Harvard University administrator who also has worked as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Boston and as a U.S. Senate staffer in Washington.

She said she hopes to find ways to offer financial aid to more students. “You don’t want to just educate the sons and daughters of leaders of the last generation who’ve already made it; you want to educate the leaders of the next generation,” she told the newspaper.

Ms. Spencer replaced Elaine Tuttle Hansen, who was Bates’ leader from 2002 through last June. She left to become executive director of The Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth.

She took over from interim president Nancy Cable, who once served as Davidson College’s vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid.

Ms. Spencer, 57, was born in North Carolina and raised in an academic family. Mr. Spencer was president of Davidson College from 1968 to 1983, and before that led Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Va.

LINK

Sept. 2, 2012, Lewiston-Auburn Sun-Journal, “Bates’ new president takes charge”