A Brief Biographical Sketch

Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., became Shenandoah University’s 16th president and the first female president of the 133-year-old institution on July 1, 2008. Until June 30, Dr. Fitzsimmons served as senior vice president & vice president for academic affairs and professor of political science at Shenandoah University. Previously, she was dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Shenandoah. Prior to accepting the position of dean in 2001, she was a faculty leader at the University of Redlands in Redlands, Calif.

In May 2007, Shenandoah University’s Board of Trustees unanimously elected Dr. Fitzsimmons to be the institution’s president. She succeeds Dr. James A. Davis, who served as president of Shenandoah for an amazing 26 years.

With regional expertise in Latin America, Fitzsimmons has taught courses on world politics, Latin American politics, global democratization, women and politics in Latin America and has conducted travel courses to both Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Her published research has taken her to Chile, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Haiti, Mexico, Guatemala, Dominican Republic, Croatia and Bosnia. Her undergraduate degree is from Princeton University magna cum laude, and her master’s and doctoral degrees are from Stanford University.

Fitzsimmons currently serves on the boards of Shentel (Shenandoah Telecommunications), Blue Ridge District BB&T Bank, Powhatan School, Grafton School and the Winchester/Frederick County Shelter for Abused Women.

She and her husband Charles Call live in Reliance, Va., with their daughter Shayla and twin sons, Dash and Jag. Dr. Chuck Call is an assistant professor in the program on Peace & Conflict Resolution at American University in Washington, D.C. He works on post-conflict peace-building, democratization, human rights and policing and justice reform. He has conducted field research in all of Central America, Colombia, Haiti, Afghanistan, West Africa, Bosnia, Kosovo and South Africa. He spent most of 2004 at the UN Department of Political Affairs as its peace-building consultant. He has worked as a consultant for Human Rights Watch, the European Commission, USAID, UNDP, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Washington Office on Latin America, and he has received grants from the U.S. Institute of Peace, the MacArthur Foundation and the National Science Foundation. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University and his B.A. cum laude from Princeton University.

The Fitzsimmons-Call home in Reliance is a converted schoolhouse, and the couple frequently hosts theatrical productions, concerts and poetry readings. Fitzsimmons and her family are members of Reliance United Methodist Church.