Dr. Elizabeth L. Hillman is the 14th President of Mills College. She has extensive experience in higher education administration and instruction and a distinguished background working on key gender and women’s issues.
President Hillman’s expertise in sexual violence and gender issues in military organizations and culture has brought her national and international recognition. She has been an expert witness testifying before Congress on numerous occasions, including at the Congressional Women’s Caucus hearing to address nonconsensual pornography in the U.S. Military (Marines United). She is a sought-after educator and speaker on the topics of sexual assault and harassment, and women’s leadership and rights. In 2013–14, she served on the Response Systems to the Adult Sexual Assault Crimes Panel (RSP), and also chaired the RSP’s Comparative Systems Subcommittee.
President Hillman is a founding member of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, and currently serves on the board of the Women's College Coalition and as a member of the NCAA Division III Chancellors and Presidents Advisory Group. She was appointed to serve on a blue-ribbon study group, the National Academies of Sciences’ Engineering and Medicine Committee Addressing Sexual Harassment in the Science, Engineering, and Medical Workplaces, that released a path-breaking report in 2018.
President Hillman is the former provost and academic dean at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, where she also served as the chief academic officer. Prior to her position at Hastings, she served as professor of law and director of faculty development at Rutgers University School of Law and taught at Yale University and the U.S. Air Force Academy. She also was an officer in the U.S. Air Force, where she served as a space operations officer and orbital analyst.
President Hillman received her bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Duke University in 1989 and a master’s degree in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994, and went on to receive a J.D. from Yale Law School in 2000 and a Ph.D, in history with a focus on women’s history from Yale University in 2001.
