Loyal friend and patron, Emily H. Fisher began her affiliation with the Colleges in 1989 with the enrollment of her son, Alexander. Since that time, she has been a dedicated and valued member of the Colleges community, serving on the President's Advisory Council and, in September 1998, endowing the Fisher Center for the Study of Women and Men, the first and only such academic and intellectual center of its kind in the history of the Colleges. Her gift has transformed these Colleges, extending inquiry into gender and equity, and their relation to race and class, beyond the classroom, creating a central public space for education and interdisciplinary exchange, and widening our intellectual and academic community of scholars nationally and internationally.
The Fisher Center brings together faculty, students and experts in gender-related fields to explore gender and sexuality in the arts, humanities and social and natural sciences in an effort to foster mutual understanding and social justice in contemporary society. As described by then President Richard Hersh at its founding, "We have always held that one's gender has an inseparable connection to one's consciousness -- a philosophy that will now play out, formally, under the auspices of the Fisher Center."
A graduate of Vassar College and Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, Fisher has shown a continued interest in gender studies that has led her and three other alumnae of the Harvard Graduate School of Education to endow the Patricia Albjerg Graham Chair in Gender Studies, the first such chair in that institution's history.
As a Trustee of Vassar College, a member of the Board of Overseers of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Chair of the Board of Overseers of Simon's Rock College of Bard College and Chair of the Churchill School in New York City, she has demonstrated a service to higher education that is worthy of our praise.
Likewise, Emily Fisher established The Fisher Center for the Study of Women at Hobart and William Smith as the first endowed center of its kind in these Colleges' history. Her longtime support and commitment to education, gender equity, justice and inclusion serves as the founding mission of The Fisher Center. In her gift, as in her devotion to education, gender and equity, Emily Fisher's generosity and dedication connects with and builds on our heritage of coordinate gender education, interdisciplinary liberal arts, and as she said at The Fisher Center's inaugural event, "new ways of learning and appreciating differences [gender, race and class] that will make them [Hobart and William Smith students] special in a world that increasingly needs these skills."
The Fisher Center has vitalized discussion in the arts, humanities, natural and social sciences on gender and education, along with that of how race and class impact gender and equity. Its distinguished lecture series holds a significant place in our liberal arts education and curriculum where faculty, students, alumni and alumnae and the wider community come together to explore important concerns of the day in ways that enlarge dialogue on gender, equity, and social justice.