Office of the President

Barbara K. Altmann, Ph.D. became the 16th president of Franklin & Marshall College in August 2018.

Dedicated to F&M’s liberal-arts mission and work-force preparation, President Altmann is committed to deepening and broadening the connections between the Franklin & Marshall community and a changing world.

Dr. Altmann recently led the largest campaign in the College’s history to a successful conclusion. She is currently leading the College through the implementation of a strategic plan, entitled L&AD: Leveraging Excellence, Accelerating Discovery, that will position F&M to better respond to student priorities and academic interests, invest in student and alumni success, and ensure institutional sustainability.

A passionate advocate for higher education, Altmann serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania (AICUP) and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE). She also cares deeply for the local community and serves on the boards of the Lancaster County STEM alliance and the Economic Development Company of Lancaster.

Before her arrival at F&M, Dr. Altmann had served as the provost at Bucknell University since 2015. A native of Canada, she received her bachelor’s degree with honors in romance languages at the University of Alberta. She earned her master’s degree in French from the University of Toronto, where she also earned her doctorate in medieval French language and literature.

As a scholar of the French Middle Ages, Dr. Altmann served for more than 25 years at the University of Oregon. She was a professor of French, head of the Department of Romance Languages, and director of the Oregon Humanities Center before spending her last three years at the university as senior vice provost for academic affairs. Early in her career, she also served as an assistant visiting professor at Dartmouth College.

President Altmann has written or edited four books and written numerous articles, reviews and conference papers in her field of expertise. In academic circles, she has served as an elected delegate to the executive councils of the American Council of Learned Societies and the Modern Language Association.