Stanford alumna Tracy Fitzsimmons — who earned her Masters and Ph.D. from the University — was recently elected Shenandoah University’s first woman president.

Fitzsimmons, who currently serves as senior vice president and vice president of academic affairs at the Winchester, Va. university, will assume the position in July 2008.

Chair of the Presidential Search Committee Bill Brandt described Fitzsimmons as “a visionary, a natural leader and, at her core, an educator.”

After graduating from Princeton, Fitzsimmons came to Stanford, where she earned her Masters in Latin American studies in 1993 before receiving her Ph.D. in political science in 1995. She joined Shenandoah’s faculty in 2001 as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and has taught a variety of courses, including some in which her students traveled to Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

Fitzsimmons will become Shenandoah’s 16th president, succeeding James Davis, who will retire from his 26-year tenure in June 2008. Davis said he is “extremely pleased” with Fitzsimmons’ selection.

“Tracy is exceptionally gifted as a leader and an administrator,” he added.

Shenandoah is a private university with six schools and about 3,000 students.