Dr. Lisa Lambert Inaugurated as Chatham’s 21st President

Dr. Lisa Lambert was inaugurated today as Chatham University’s 21st president during a ceremony in Campbell Memorial Chapel at Shadyside Campus.

The ceremony included faculty and deans in academic regalia, music from the Chatham Choir and an organist, and a reception on the University quad for guests, among whom were faculty, staff, students, members of the Board of Trustees, elected officials, Dr. Lambert’s family, and other people from the Chatham community.

During her remarks, Dr. Lambert said she believes Chatham is ready to take on the challenges facing higher education today.

“Colleges, universities should always be willing and eager to change, because society changes,” she said, “communities change, our students and their needs change. If higher education is doing its job, we change to meet those needs. We change with them.”

Though Dr. Lambert was officially inaugurated today, she has served as president since last year, being appointed interim president in June 2025 and officially taking over the position that October.

Dr. Lambert first joined the University as a biology faculty member in 1985. She has also served as chair of the science department, founding director of the Master of Science in Biology program, associate dean for academic affairs, and assistant vice president of undergraduate learning. Before she was appointed      president, she was serving as provost and vice president of academic affairs.

At the inauguration ceremony, Kent McElhattan, chair of Chatham’s Board of Trustees, said selecting a leader is the board’s most sacred responsibility.

“We look for a visionary leader of profound integrity, an unyielding champion of student success, and scholar capable of navigating the evolving landscape of global education,” McElhattan said. “We found all these qualities and more in Dr. Lambert.”

Dr. Prajna Parasher, professor of art, film, and cultural studies, represented the faculty at the ceremony. “When Lisa came to Chatham in 1985, she came as a young biologist with a deep curiosity about how living things work,” Dr. Parasher said during her remarks. “Four decades later, she has never stopped asking that question; she has simply widened the lens from cells and genes to students and departments and, now, to the whole university.”

Dr. Lambert’s academic work includes research in iron homeostasis and sabbaticals at the University of Pittsburgh, Duke University, and the Harvard University School of Public Health, Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases. She has a BS in biology from Furman University and a Ph.D. in genetics from Indiana University-Bloomington.