Mary Dana Hinton: Where Love Leads

For many, leadership is thought of as definitive, uncompromising, lonely, and infallible. President Hinton invites current and aspiring leaders to reframe their perspective on leadership and to see it as an opportunity to create an environment where love is the guiding principle. Where Love Leads is not based on a soft notion of love, but on a powerful approach to achieving outcomes through courage, compassion, vulnerability, and love.

Register today

Bio: Mary Dana Hinton, Ph.D. is the 13th president of Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, and president emerita of the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota. A nationally recognized champion of the liberal arts and women’s education, her leadership is defined by an unwavering commitment to inclusion, access, and academic excellence.

Hinton earned her Ph.D. in religion and religious education with high honors from Fordham University, an M.A. in clinical child psychology from the University of Kansas, and a B.A. in psychology from Williams College. She has received the Williams College Bicentennial Medal and honorary doctorates from Misericordia University, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, and Mount Saint Mary’s University. In 2021, she was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

An accomplished scholar and thought leader, Hinton’s work focuses on higher education leadership, strategic planning, and access. She is the author of Leading from the Margins: College Leadership from Unexpected Places (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024) and The Commercial Church: Black Churches and the New Religious Marketplace in America, with her forthcoming book Where Love Leads: Leadership and the Liberal Arts to be published by University of Virginia Press in 2026. Her writing appears widely in leading higher education publications.

Hinton currently serves as past chair of the Board of Directors for the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU). She also holds board positions with the American Association of Colleges and Universities, The Teagle Foundation, the Council of Independent Colleges of Virginia, and Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles.

Hinton is a frequent speaker across the U.S. and internationally on issues related to the liberal arts and inclusive excellence. She is a faculty member in the CIC Presidential Vocation and Institutional Mission program and the Academic Leadership Institute.

She is the author of several books, including Leading from the Margins: College Leadership from Unexpected Places (2024) and the forthcoming Where Love Leads: Leadership and the Liberal Arts, which will be published by University of Virginia Press in 2026.

Community event in Roanoke, Roanoke city County, VA 24020.