Carmen Twillie Ambar

University president Carmen Twillie Ambar was born on July 3, 1968 to Gwendolyn and Manuel Twillie in Little Rock, Arkansas. Ambar received her B.S. degree in foreign service from Georgetown University in 1990, her M.P.A. degree in domestic education policy from Princeton University in 1994, and her J.D. degree from Columbia Law School in 1994.

Between 1994 and 1998, Ambar served as an assistant corporate counsel in the New York City Law Department. In 1998, Ambar was hired as the director of graduate programs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. In 2000, she became the assistant dean for graduate education. Ambar then was hired as the dean of Rutgers University’s Douglass College and served in this capacity from 2002 and 2008. She became the president of Cedar Crest College in 2008. She served in this role until 2017 when she was hired as president of Oberlin College, making her the first African American to hold this position.

During her career, Ambar served on numerous boards and commissions. In 2002, she joined the Public Leadership Education Network (PLEN) and became the Associate Alumnae of Douglass College. In 2003, Ambar joined the American Repertory Ballet, the NJ 300, and the Executive Women of New Jersey. She also served on the Host Committee for the Opening of the Presidential Library. Between 2004 and 2008, she served on the American Society of Civil Engineers Extraordinary Women Engineers project advisory committee and the Liberty Science Center learning and teaching advisory board. Ambar was appointed by the Governor of New Jersey to the Governor’s New Jersey Advisory Commission on the Status of Women. She joined the Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Policy Research Institute advisory board in 2005. In 2006, the Governor of New Jersey appointed Ambar to the State of New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority and the School Construction Corporation. She was a board member of the Women’s College Coalition between 2009 and 2017, the Association of Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania between 2014 and 2017, the Swain School between 2014 and 2017, and the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges between 2002 and 2017. Ambar served as the Pennsylvania Campus Compact vice chair between 2010 and 2017. In 2017, she began serving on the Five Colleges of Ohio board, the NCAA’s President’s Council, the Great Lakes College Association board, and the State of American Democracy advisory committee. Ambar joined the Council of Independent Colleges board and the Consortium on Financing Higher Education Board in 2021. She became a member of the Lumina Foundation board in 2022. Along with her memberships, Ambar served as the chair of various boards/commissions including PLEN, the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges board, and the Five Colleges of Ohio board.

Ambar resides in Oberlin, Ohio with her husband, Saladin Malik Ambar. They have three children, Gabrielle, Luke, and Daniel.

Carmen Twillie Ambar was interviewed by The HistoryMakers on November 2, 2023.