Welcoming Interim Director Meghan Rehbein

As we begin a new semester, we are pleased to announce that Meghan Rehbein, Dean of Douglass Residential College, is serving as interim director for the Institute for Women’s Leadership (IWL). Dean Rehbein brings significant expertise in strategic planning and organizational development to this role, which she is undertaking while continuing to serve as the eleventh Dean of Douglass, a position she has held since July 2022.

With over two decades of experience in nonprofit leadership, higher education, and health and human services organizations, Dean Rehbein’s research focuses on gender and leadership development in the nonprofit sector.

She succeeds Professor Rebecca Mark, who served as IWL Director from January 2020 through June 2025. Following a well-earned sabbatical, Professor Mark will return to her faculty role in the Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. The IWL, along with our partners and students, is deeply grateful to Professor Mark for her contributions and steadfast commitment over the past five years.

We invite you to read Dean Rehbein's welcome message and join us in supporting her leadership during this exciting new chapter in the Institute’s work.

This is absolutely my favorite time of year. There’s a palpable sense of possibility in the air as students arrive on campus. It’s a new beginning for those first-year and transfer students who are joining us for the first time. For continuing students, it’s a return to their campus home, to the distinctive mix of routine and novel that college presents. And of course, as a lifelong Jersey Shore resident, it’s local summer when the beaches are at their quietest and best.

I am so pleased to lead the Institute for Women’s Leadership into the next stage of our growth. Over the past 40 years, the IWL has gone from an informal group convened by Dean Mary S. Hartman to a distinguished and influential interdisciplinary consortium with a breadth that is inspiring.

Rutgers-New Brunswick is one of the leading universities in the world for the study of gender, women’s history, feminist research, and women’s education. We have nationally and internationally recognized expertise across a wide range of fields, including:

• The Center for American Women and Politics at the Eagleton Institute of Politics, a leader in research and programming on women’s political participation
• The Department of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in the School of Arts and Sciences, offers cutting-edge research and teaching in feminist theory and gender studies
• The Institute for Research on Women in the School of Arts and Sciences, a hub for interdisciplinary feminist scholarship
• The Center for Women and Work at the School of Management and Labor Relations, focuses on equity, labor, and the experiences of working women
• The Center for Women in Business at the Rutgers Business School, advances women’s leadership and entrepreneurship in corporate and business sectors
• The Center for Research on Ending Violence at the School of Social Work, addresses gender-based violence through research, policy, and practice
• The Women’s Health Institute at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, shapes the future of women’s health through education, clinical practice, mentoring, advocacy, and outreach
• The Zimmerli Art Museum, highlights women in art through exhibitions and collections

In addition, Douglass Residential College has been an innovator and model for undergraduate women’s education for more than a century.

We are also welcoming students back to campus at the IWL Leadership Scholars Certificate Program, enrolling a new cohort of participants in the Alison R. Bernstein Media Mentoring Program, and beginning our final year with Dr. Roxane Gay as the Gloria Steinem Endowed Chair in Media, Culture and Feminist Studies. There are possibilities – for our students and for the IWL – in abundance. I look forward to exploring some of the new possibilities that my dual role between Douglass and the IWL offers, and to further Rutgers-New Brunswick’s reputation as the premier site for the advancement of women’s leadership education and research.

The work that the IWL is doing remains critical and necessary. The World Economic Forum publishes an annual gender parity report. The most recent report stated that it would be 123 years before women across the globe have parity in education, workforce, access to healthcare, and political participation. I decided to study women and leadership, in part because every time I hear statistics like that, I get both enraged and energized to change things. A recent study noted that New Jersey ranks near the bottom in gender equity for women. The IWL consortium is working to change this. What we are doing here matters more than ever, and the support and participation of people across the globe help us to continue this work.

Your investment makes every aspect of the IWL’s work possible. Whether you are interested in championing Leadership Scholars as they explore their Social Action Projects, or funding research or other work at the intersection of women and leadership in your area of expertise, or attending the Anita Ashok Datar Lecture on Women's Global Health on November 11^th, please stay connected to our community. We count on your leadership, your participation, and your financial support to make change possible.

I look forward to working alongside you to advance women’s leadership for a just world.

Thank you, 

Meghan Rehbein

Dean, Douglass Residential College

Director, Institute for Women’s Leadership