Clayton Spencer

Clayton Spencer became the eighth President of Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine, on July 1, 2012. She came to Bates from Harvard University, where she served for 15 years in a succession of leadership positions, culminating in the role of Vice President for Policy. The daughter of a president of two liberal arts colleges, Spencer grew up in a household where, as she says, “Education was the family business.” Her own education was at Phillips Exeter Academy, Williams College, Oxford, Harvard and Yale, where she earned a law degree. She practiced law with a private firm in Boston before becoming an Assistant U.S. Attorney there. She subsequently served as Chief Education Counsel in the U.S. Senate, staffing Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, before joining Harvard.