Carolyn J. Stefanco has been president of The College of Saint Rose, a master’s comprehensive in Albany, New York, since 2014. Under her leadership, the college has launched innovative student success programs and 10 new degrees in high-demand fields. Expanded student recruiting efforts have resulted in the most diverse first-year classes in the institution’s history, and the student body now represents 34 American states and 61 countries. Stefanco was awarded a Helen Gurley Brown Genius Grant in 2018 for her visionary leadership, and the college was invited to join the BOLD Women’s Leadership Network. Recent gifts of $2.3 million are funding women’s leadership initiatives, including a new Women’s Leadership Institute.

She joined the college after serving as vice president for academic affairs at Agnes Scott College, as the founding dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at California State University, Stanislaus, and as professor, department chair and women’s studies program director at California Polytechnic State University. 

Stefanco was a Senior Fulbright Scholar to the University of Zagreb in Croatia, served as resident director of a London Study Program, and is a trustee of the American University in Bulgaria and a member of the board of directors of the International Leadership Association. She participates at the national level in many American higher education associations, and she serves on the board of directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. In the Capital Region of New York, she is a director of Albany Medical Center, an executive board member of Hearst’s Women@Work, and a member of the board of directors for the Center for Economic Growth, where she chairs the work group on Interactive Technology.

She earned a doctorate in history from Duke University, a master's degree in women’s history from Binghamton University, and a bachelor's degree in history and a women’s studies certificate from the University of Colorado at Boulder.