University Chancellor Brian T. Moynihan, in a letter to the school community, wrote Paxson informed the Corporation of Brown University she believes Brown “will soon be ready to begin a new strategic planning process” and “it is the right time to find a new president who will lead this multi-year effort for Brown and be in place to implement their vision for the next generation.”
It is unusual for an Ivy League president to leave before the end of the term. In her own letter to the Brown community, Paxson, whose term had been extended from June 2026 to June 2028, wrote that her decision to depart a year earlier than planned is “the best path for Brown” and the right move for her and her family.
Since becoming the institution’s 19th president in July 2012, Paxson helped Brown expand its endowment, invested in financial aid, and deepened its footprint in Providence. Those who know Paxson call her a careful and measured economist.
“Fifteen years is a significant tenure for any president, and in that time, this amazing community of faculty, staff, students, alumni, parents and friends showed up in so many ways to achieve the bold aspirations in the strategic plan we developed together near the beginning of my presidency,” Paxson, 66, wrote. “We worked vigilantly to demonstrate the value of Brown to the world, and we all can be proud of and deeply grateful for the transformative impact of a community-driven fundraising campaign that made so much of our work possible.”
The corporation will launch a national search for Paxson’s successor, according to Moynihan.
Paxson “always put the needs of this community and Brown’s mission of service first,” Moynihan, a 1981 Brown graduate who serves as chair of the board and CEO of Bank of America, wrote.
Moynihan added, “Of course I asked her if she would stay longer.”
Through a spokesperson, Paxson declined an interview request.
On Monday, some Brown faculty members said they were not shocked by the news of Paxson’s planned departure.
“She’s held the tiller through some very rough patches, and despite some decisions many of us opposed, Brown in 2026 is still an amazing place to work and study,” J. Timmons Roberts, an environmental science professor at Brown, said in an interview Monday. “We knew she was soon to retire [or] step down, and this timing does make sense to me.”
Her leadership style, Roberts said, is quieter than other university presidents, but her results are hard to dispute.
“She’s not a thundering public speaker,” Roberts said in a previous interview. “But her achievements are undeniable.”
Faculty described Paxson as pragmatic and approachable, noting that, unlike her predecessors, she holds office hours and has long had an open-door policy for the campus community.
“Faculty generally respect [president Paxson],” wrote Denise Davis, a gender and sexuality studies at Brown, in a text to a Globe reporter. Now, she wrote, they’re “apprehensive about who could take over.”
Brown University president Christina H. Paxson, following a press conference on the campus shooting in December. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff
Paxson’s term was originally supposed to end in June, but after the White House said in 2025 that it would withhold $510 million in federal contracts and grants because of what the Trump administration called persistent antisemitism on campus, she agreed to extend her term to June 2028.
In July 2025, Brown struck a controversial deal with the Trump administration, which settled three federal investigations into campus antisemitism without having to admit any wrongdoing or make payments to the federal government. The agreement also required Brown to follow federal nondiscrimination provisions, including Trump’s definitions of “male” and “female” for its sports and facility offerings, and that “The University will not perform gender reassignment surgery or prescribe puberty blockers or hormones to any minor child for the purpose of aligning the child’s appearance with an identity that differs from his or her sex.” (On its website, Brown notes that its student health services does not does not have surgical facilities, the University itself does not own any hospitals or medical centers, and that the agreement with the Trump administration “does not apply to clinical services provided by health systems that are separate entities from Brown, such as Brown University Health and Care New England.”)
The deal prompted criticism from some in the campus community, who argued the agreement shunned transgender and nonbinary students at an institution known for inclusivity. In her letter on Monday, Paxson defended the agreement, writing that it ”restored our funding while staying true to Brown’s values.”
Paxson did not emerge from these challenges unscathed.
She has long been a polarizing figure among Brown’s students, who often refer to her as CPax, and has been criticized by some students for how she and the administration handled sexual violence on campus. Data collected by The Brown Daily Herald showed 62 percent of students approved of her leadership in 2017. In the spring of 2024, that number had dropped to 16 percent, although it has since ticked back up to 34 percent, as of the fall of 2025.
In the wake of the pandemic, a newly formed chapter of the American Association of University Professors has been pushing to improve communication between the administration and instructors.
Michael Steinberg, a longtime history and music professor, leads that group and has been at the center of those debates. On Monday, he said he hopes the committee searching for Brown’s next leader “will will listen closely to a wide and diverse range of faculty.”
Brown University’s campus.Steven Senne/Associated Press
Under Paxson’s tenure, Brown bolstered its financial aid, saw its endowment balloon to $8 billion, and invested more than $2 billion into its campus, including approximately $700 million in the development of Providence’s Jewelry District, which had faced industrial decline and decaying properties. She led Brown to deepen its relationships in Providence and Rhode Island, perhaps most notably through its $150 million investment into the state’s largest hospital system, now dubbed Brown University Health.
“That’s a big deal. No one was able to do that for 30 years,” said Dr. Amy Nunn, executive director of the Rhode Island Public Health Institute.
Nunn noted that the university’s professional schools and medical school have reached higher ranks under Paxson, even though she has had to deal with one crisis after another in recent years.
“It would be reasonable for someone to step down after managing all of them,” said Nunn.
“Most [university presidents] serve five or 10 years. She’s done a lot, and has a lot to be proud of,” said Nunn. Personally, “as you climb the professional ladder, there are fewer and fewer women in the room. She’s always a reminder to me of someone who’s led with grace and someone I admire as a female professional role model. And, she’s a mom.”
A prominent and trailblazing health economist, Paxson previously spent 26 years on the faculty of Princeton University. Her research was largely at the intersections of childhood health, socioeconomic status, and adult labor market outcomes. Her work on AIDS in the early 2000s looked at the impact of the HIV pandemic on health services in sub-Saharan Africa.
Paxson grew up in the 1960s near Pittsburgh. Her father, an engineer who worked on nuclear power plants, was a theater buff and would take Paxson with him to plays and to build sets with him. Her mother stayed at home for years before her parents divorced when she was 9; her mother then returned to school and earned a master’s degree in child development.
Paxson applied to Harvard early decision, but was rejected, which she later called “the best thing in the world that happened to me.” She attended Swarthmore College and earned a graduate degree from Columbia. She married Ari Gabinet, a former executive vice president and general counsel of OppenheimerFunds who is now a senior fellow at The Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown. They have two adult sons.
In her letter on Monday, Paxson wrote Brown is “wonderfully poised to begin its next chapter, and a transition in leadership now will ensure the vision for the next phase is set by Brown’s next leader and stewarded by them from the beginning.”
Paxson did not say what she will do once she steps down as president, but wrote she and her husband, are “deeply grateful for the warm embrace we have received from the Brown, Providence, and Rhode Island communities.”
“This is home, and we plan to contribute to Brown’s continued success and support our local community in the years to come‚” she wrote. “I look forward to Brown’s future.”
Christopher Gavin can be reached at [email protected]. Alexa Gagosz can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her @alexagagosz and on Instagram @AlexaGagosz.
