Elizabeth Kiss

Elizabeth Kiss, born in 1961, is an American philosopher and academic administrator known for her work in moral and political philosophy. She is the 20th president of Union College, assuming office on July 1, 2025. Prior to this, she was the Warden of Rhodes House and Chief Executive Officer of the Rhodes Trust from 2018 to 2024. She was the first woman to hold this position, overseeing the Rhodes Scholarship program. Before her tenure at Oxford, Kiss served as the eighth President of Agnes Scott College from 2006 to 2018, where she introduced the SUMMIT curriculum focusing on leadership development and global learning. Her earlier career included a role as the founding director of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University from 1997 to 2006. Kiss's parents emigrated from Hungary in 1956, and she has spoken about her upbringing in a family of refugees, influencing her perspective on straddling different worlds. She graduated from Davidson College, where she was a Rhodes Scholar, and earned a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford.