Lynn Perry Wooten

Lynn Perry Wooten, a seasoned academic and an expert on organizational development and transformation, became the ninth president and first African American to lead Simmons University on July 1, 2020.

Specializing in crisis leadership, diversity and inclusion, and positive leadership — organizational behavior that reveals and nurtures the highest level of human potential — President Wooten is an innovative leader whose research has informed her work in the classroom and as an administrator.

President Wooten is a scholar and academic, and throughout her career, she has assumed a number of leadership positions. Most recently, she served as the David J. Nolan Dean and Professor of Management and Organizations at Cornell University’s Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management.