Alison Bernstein, who died on June 30, speaks to a gathering of alumni, parents, and friends in Atlanta during the “Multicultural Voices” listening events held around the country in 2011. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

Alison Bernstein, a member of the �ֲ���ý College Board of Trustees and a U.S. higher education scholar, policy expert, and activist who helped to open doors for diverse and historically underserved populations, died of cancer on June 30, 2016, at age 69.

Appointed to the �ֲ���ý board in 2007, Bernstein used her “wealth of experience and expertise in foundation philanthropy and academia” as a “champion of equity and diversity, both for the campus community and the Board of Trustees,” wrote President Clayton Spencer in her message to the campus community on July 5.

Bernstein served as vice chair of the �ֲ���ý board from 2010 to 2014, as a member of the Presidential Search Committee in 2011, and as co-chair of the Board Governance and Admission and Financial Aid committees.

Her daughter Emma Brown-Bernstein graduated from �ֲ���ý in 2009.

“Alison’s deep experience as an educator, forward vision, and keen understanding of the human condition contributed profoundly to the �ֲ���ý experience for nearly a decade. Alison embraced �ֲ���ý fully — our institution, our community, and our people — and we will miss the strength and warmth of that relationship,” said Michael Bonney ’80, chair of the �ֲ���ý College Board of Trustees.

Director of the Institute for Women’s Leadership at Rutgers University since 2011, Bernstein was earlier a Ford Foundation official for 14 years, rising to vice president of the Education, Creativity, and Free Expression Program, now known as Creativity and Free Expression.

“Ms. Bernstein was a polymath who brought her broad knowledge to bear on an array of causes” at the Ford Foundation, The New York Times noted in its July 10 story.

She “expanded opportunities for learning and tackled challenging social problems,” the story said and, specifically, “worked on improving community colleges and increasing the transfer rate for students to four-year institutions; opening up higher education to more Native American students; and advancing women’s and gender studies.”

In her tenure at Rutgers, said the Times, Bernstein “promoted interdisciplinary study on the areas of women and health and women, media and technology,” and led efforts to endow a professorship in Gloria Steinem’s name that will be devoted to media, culture, and feminist studies.

A professor of history at Rutgers who was a scholar of Native American studies and women and gender studies, Bernstein’s scholarship included the co-authored book Melting Pots and Rainbow Nations: Conversations About Difference in the United States and South Africa.

Bernstein’s first board service was in 1969, at age 22, when she was appointed a trustee of Vassar College, her alma mater, just months after her graduation.

In a sign of the times, then-Vassar president Alan Simpson said that “if anyone can mediate between hairy youth and hoary age, it is Alison Bernstein.”

In turn, Bernstein, as quoted in a 1969 Newsday story, said that “so far as I can tell, the generation gap is a creation of people who don’t realize we’re closer together than we think we are.”

The �ֲ���ý College Board of Trustees has elected Alison R. Bernstein, Ph.D., of New York City and Atlanta as vice chair, �ֲ���ý President Elaine Tuttle Hansen and the trustees have announced.

Bernstein succeeds Victoria A. Wicks ’79, who joined the Board of Trustees in 1996 and will remain a member of the board.

Dr. Bernstein has been a member of the �ֲ���ý board since 2007.

This fall she joined the Spelman College faculty as appointee to the Cosby Endowed Chair of the Humanities and Comparative Women’s Studies. She came to Spelman after serving the Ford Foundation in various leadership positions since 1982: first as a program officer, later as director of the Education and Culture Program (1992-96), and then as vice president for the Knowledge, Creativity and Freedom Program, one of the three program divisions of the Ford Foundation.

In her vice presidential capacity she was responsible for the direction, conduct and evaluation of the foundation’s work in the United States and internationally in the fields of education and scholarship, arts and culture, media, religion and sexuality.

A noted academic and former associate dean of the faculty at Princeton University, she has also taught at Princeton, Sangamon State University (now the University of Illinois, Springfield), and Staten Island Community College (now the College of Staten Island, City University of New York).

Bernstein is the author of three books: American Indians and World War II: Toward a New Era in Indian Affairs (University of Oklahoma Press, 1991); with Virginia B. Smith, The Impersonal Campus (Jossey-Bass Inc., 1979); and with Jacklyn Cock, Melting Pots and Rainbow Nations: Conversations on Difference in the U.S. and South Africa (University of Illinois Press, 2002).

She has also published in The Chronicle of Higher Education and several professional journals on issues related to students, transfers from community colleges to four-year institutions, access to higher education for women and minorities, diversity on campus and the impact of women’s studies, and she has served as executive editor of Change magazine.

Besides serving on the �ֲ���ý board, she serves on the boards of the Samuel Rubin Foundation and Project Pericles. She is also a former trustee of Vassar College and a former member of the Presidential Advisory Board on Tribal Colleges and Universities, and the Board of Advisors to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History.

Bernstein received her bachelor’s degree in history from Vassar College, and master’s and doctoral degrees in history from Columbia University.

A native New Yorker, she is the mother of twin daughters, Emma and Julia, who attended �ֲ���ý and Oberlin College, respectively. Emma graduated with the �ֲ���ý class of 2009.

The �ֲ���ý College Board of Trustees has elected Michael W. Bonney, a member of the �ֲ���ý class of 1980 from Sudbury, Mass., as chair of the board and Alison R. Bernstein, Ph.D., of New York City and Atlanta as vice chair, �ֲ���ý President Elaine Tuttle Hansen and the trustees have announced.

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Bonney succeeds Joseph T. Willett ’73, who retired from the board following 15 years of service, including the last four as chair.

Bernstein succeeds Victoria A. Wicks ’79, who joined the Board of Trustees in 1996 and will remain a member of the board. 

Hansen said, “Mike Bonney and Alison Bernstein will bring tremendous and complementary strengths to their leadership of the �ֲ���ý board, strengths we have seen them demonstrate throughout their service with the board.

“Mike has shown both a deep understanding and respect of the academic enterprise while contributing the many applicable insights of business leadership. Alison brings both her own strong academic career and decades of support for educational opportunity and philanthropy nationally and internationally.

“We look forward with great anticipation to their work in their new roles on our board.”