G. Gabrielle Starr

Starr is the tenth president of Pomona College and a highly regarded scholar of English literature. She previously served as Dean of New York University's College of Arts and Science, where she led the development of new cohort and first-year programs, helping to create scholarly communities for undergraduates in the arts and sciences. Starr also launched a partnership with New York City's largest community college to create a pipeline in STEM, and she co-founded a cross-university prison education program, offering A.A. degrees in the liberal arts to students in a medium-security prison. Her research looks closely at the brain, through the use of fMRI, to help get to the heart of how people respond to paintings, music and other forms of art. Her most recent book, Feeling Beauty: The Neuroscience of Aesthetic Experience (2013) was a finalist for the Phi Beta Kappa Society's 2014 Christian Gauss Award.