Elisabeth Zinser

Who is Elisabeth Zinser?

Elisabeth Ann Zinser is a retired university president, most recently at Southern Oregon University in Ashland, Oregon. Previously she was the chancellor of the Lexington campus of the University of Kentucky, and the first female president of the University of Idaho, serving from 1989–1995 in Moscow.

She holds a bachelor's degree from Stanford, a master's from UCSF, and a doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley. She also received an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Prior to Idaho, Zinser received national attention in 1988 when she was named the seventh president of Gallaudet University in Washington, DC. She served for just six days, from March 6–11, then resigned due to protests over her selection in what came to be known as the "Deaf President Now" protest at Gallaudet, saying that the protest was "a monumental event in the history of deaf culture." The protesters thanked her for making a graceful exit, noting that she had become an "innocent victim and an unfortunate target" of the their collective anger.

A native of Meadville, Pennsylvania, she is currently a board member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland.