The President of Oberlin College is the chief administrator of both Oberlin College and Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Each is appointed by and is responsible to the other members of that body, who delegate to him or her the day-to-day running of the university. The current incumbent is Carmen Twillie Ambar. As part of Oberlin's inherent mission of a vastly interdisciplinary education, presidents have been chosen from a wide range of fields as diverse as musical performance (Starr), theology (Finney) physics (Fuller), law (Krislov), athletics (Stevenson) and pure mathematics (King). Thus, each president is a qualified academic professor who has the opportunity to teach classes.
Presidents of Oberlin College
Asa Mahan, 1835–1850
Charles Grandison Finney, leader in the Second Great Awakening, president 1851–1866 James Fairchild, 1866–1889 William Gay Ballantine, 1891–1896 John Henry Barrows, 1899–1902 Henry Churchill King, 1902–1927 Ernest H. Wilkins, 1927–1946 William Stevenson, 1946–1960 Robert K. Carr, 1960–1969 Robert W. Fuller, 1970–1974 Emil Danenberg, 1975–1982 S. Frederick Starr, 1983–1994 Nancy Dye, 1994–2007 Marvin Krislov, 2007–2017 Carmen Twillie Ambar, 2017–present