Bryn Mawr College appoints two Penn alumni as provost, board chair

1994 College of Arts and Sciences graduate Airea Matthews and 1995 College graduate Saskia Subramanian were appointed to serve as the next provost and chair of the board of trustees, respectively, at Bryn Mawr College.

Both Matthews and Subramanian have worked at the women’s liberal arts college, located just outside Philadelphia, for nearly a decade each. The appointments were announced on Bryn Mawr’s website and will take effect in 2026.

Matthews was previously a professor at Bryn Mawr and co-chair of the college’s Department of Creative Writing. As an undergraduate at Penn, she majored in Economics.

“I lived at the DuBois College House, which helped me understand and redefine myself,” Matthews told OMNIA. “I had never been in an environment where I felt like I wasn’t an ‘other.’ I don’t define myself as an ‘other’ anymore, but I used to, and living with a bunch of like-minded people who were doing incredible things helped change that.”

In addition to positions in higher education, Matthews is also a published author and former Poet Laureate of Philadelphia.

Subramanian has served on Bryn Mawr’s board since 2015, and previously held the role of president for the Bryn Mawr Alumnae Association. She obtained a Ph.D. in sociology from Penn after graduating from Bryn Mawr with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree.

Both previously worked in higher education before coming to the university — Matthews at the University of Michigan and Subramanian at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Matthews and Subramanian will take their positions on Jan. 1 and June 1 of next year, respectively.

Previous Penn alumni have also held administrative positions at Bryn Mawr. In 2022, Karlene Burrell McRae, who graduated from Penn with master’s degrees in 1996 and 2000 and a Ph.D. in 2009, was named dean of the undergraduate college, retiring from the position in January 2025.

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