Dear Friends,
I am writing to let you know that I will step down from my role as Warden on 1 January 2025.
It has been a tremendous honour to serve the Rhodes Trust over the past six years. Our mission to find the most outstanding young people around the world, and invest in their learning, growth and impact as future leaders committed to tackling humanity’s challenges, is more important than ever. Working with Scholars in Residence, Alumni, friends, as well as talented and dedicated colleagues has given me great inspiration and joy.
The continued pre-eminence of the Rhodes Scholarship in an ever-growing field of competitive international scholarships is due to the dedicated leadership and service of hundreds of selectors, donors, mentors, and volunteers. I am grateful to each and every one of you.
Together, we have continued to strengthen and expand the Rhodes Scholarship, enhancing selection and outreach around the world and supporting the parity and excellence of the Scholar experience in Oxford. We have fostered lifelong fellowship, providing meaningful new opportunities for Alumni to connect with each other and Scholars in Residence. Travelling to 15 Rhodes constituencies around the world, we have raised over £100m to support these efforts and to expand our global community, endowing new scholarships in West, East, and South Africa, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and China, with excellent momentum toward expansion in India.
Through the Big Build, we transformed Rhodes House, doubling its usable space and creating world class facilities for local and global audiences to gather. And we have taken meaningful practical steps to respond to our contentious history and legacy. In short, we are a dynamic 121-year old start-up, and I am excited about all the ways the Rhodes Scholarship will continue to evolve and grow in the years to come.
The Rhodes Trust has continued to benefit from our strong partnership with the University of Oxford, and I am grateful for the friendship and colleagueship of so many people across the collegiate university, including at my own college, Balliol, where I have had the honour and pleasure of serving as a Professorial Fellow.
It has also been a great honour to contribute to the development of the Trust’s partner programmes, Mandela Rhodes, Atlantic Institute, Schmidt Science Fellows, Rise, and Oxford Next Horizons. Each in its own distinctive way is equipping leaders to “fight the world’s fights.”
In the years to come, I shall continue to follow with pride the achievements and contributions, not only of the over 800 Rhodes Scholars in Residence I have come to know during my Wardenship, but also our broader fellowship of over 5,000 living Rhodes alumni, 700 Mandela Rhodes Scholars, 900 Atlantic Fellows, 150 Schmidt Science Fellows, 400 Rise Global Winners, and our newest community of Oxford Next Horizons Scholars.
Jeff and I have loved being back in Oxford, where our journey as a couple began 40 years ago. And that Oxford journey is not over quite yet: I look forward to welcoming the Rhodes Class of 2024 and to working with many of you to achieve a few more milestones in our Exponential Potential campaign before the end of the year. I will then spend the first half of 2025 on a sabbatical, giving me a chance to focus on a writing project on leadership and ethics, before returning to the United States to pursue my next professional chapter. I have agreed with the Chair and our Trustees to assist in any way I can to ensure a smooth transition and to support my successor.
In our Character, Service and Leadership programme, we explore questions of vocation and calling. It has been my privilege to embrace as my calling the role of Warden over the past six years. I am grateful to all who gave me this opportunity and supported me along the way.
With thanks and warm wishes from both Jeff and me,
Elizabeth
Dr Elizabeth Kiss (Virginia & Balliol 1983)
Warden & CEO