Chancellor's Biography

Dr. Anne Ponder

Chancellor, University of North Carolina at Asheville

Dr. Anne Ponder became the sixth Chancellor of the University of North Carolina Asheville in October 2005.

Chancellor Ponder is a native of Asheville and a lifelong educator. She earned her bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in English from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. She began her academic career at Elon College (now Elon University) in North Carolina, where she was the first woman and first pre-tenure professor to receive the Daniels-Danieley Award for Excellence in Teaching. During her nine years at Elon, she taught English and communications, and founded the college’s Honors Program.

She later joined Guilford College in North Carolina, where she was an associate professor of English and interdisciplinary studies and served as associate academic dean. At Kenyon College in Ohio, she served as professor of English and drama, academic dean, adding ‘vice president for information technology' to her portfolio.

In 1995, she was selected to become president at Colby-Sawyer College, a private liberal arts college in New London, N.H., where she would serve for ten years.

At UNC Asheville, Chancellor Ponder has led a campuswide collaboration resulting in a five-year Strategic Plan and then implemented an administrative reorganization that focuses University resources on the Strategic Plan’s highest priorities. As part of that strategy, the UNC Asheville campus now serves as the new national headquarters for the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges.    

Chancellor Ponder is a nationally known expert on institutional effectiveness, strategic planning, and fundraising and resource development. She has been a frequent faculty member of Harvard University’s Institutes for Higher Education, and has written a chapter on strategic planning for the book "Leading America’s Branch Campuses," edited by Samuel Schuman and published by the American Council on Education.  

In addition to serving the University, Chancellor Ponder is a member of the Mission Hospitals Audit Committee and the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. She also serves as a member of the Asheville Community and Economic Development Alliance.  

Chancellor Ponder is the daughter of the late Herschel and Eleanor Ponder, both of whom traced their Asheville family roots back to the 1780s. She is married to Christopher Brookhouse, an award-winning writer and publisher previously on the English faculty at UNC Chapel Hill.