President's Biography

Janet Morgan Riggs is Gettysburg College's 14^th president. She has served her alma mater in a variety of faculty and administrative roles for 27 years. From March 2008 to February 2009, she served as interim president prior to being named president. She also served as provost for one year, after having served as interim provost in 2006-07, a post she also held in 1995-96.  Dr. Riggs was also executive assistant to the president under President Gordon Haaland from 1991 to 1994.

After graduating summa cum laude from Gettysburg College with a B.A. in psychology and mathematics, Dr. Riggs received her M.A. and Ph.D. in social psychology from Princeton University. She began her academic career as an instructor in psychology at Gettysburg College where she was promoted through the ranks to professor of psychology. She has also served as chair of the psychology department. Dr. Riggs has taught courses in experimental methods, social psychology, and general psychology.

Dr. Riggs has combined a successful teaching career with active scholarship in her field of social psychology. Her research interests include expectancy confirmation, gender role stereotypes, and attributions for behavior. She has published numerous articles on her research and currently serves as consulting editor for the Psychology of Women Quarterly.

Dr. Riggs is the recipient of the Gettysburg College Student Senate Faculty Appreciation Award, the Thompson Award for Distinguished Teaching, and the Gettysburg College Woman of Distinction Award.

A native of suburban Philadelphia, Riggs and her husband Ed, also a member of the Gettysburg College Class of 1977 and a teacher at the Gettysburg Area Middle School, are the parents of three grown children.