William Drea Adams

William Drea Adams is an American educator and advocate for the humanities. He was the tenth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities from 2014 to 2017. He served as the 14th President of Bucknell University from 1995 to 2000, and as the 19th President of Colby College from 2000 to 2014.

Early life and education

Adams was born in Birmingham, Michigan, attended the Holderness School, and began undergraduate studies at Colorado College. He left the school and served for three years in the United States Army, including one year in Vietnam as an infantry advisor in the Mekong Delta, but returned to graduate in 1972 magna cum laude. In 1988 he took an administrative position at Wesleyan University, eventually becoming the vice president from 1993 to 1995. Adams authored a PhD dissertation in history of consciousness titled Digging in the same place: an essay in the political and social philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1982).

He served five years as president of Bucknell University in Pennsylvania from 1995 to 2000, and became Colby College's 19th president on July 1, 2000.

Adams served as a director of the Maine Public Broadcasting Network from 2002 to 2012, Wittenberg University from 2007 to 2011, and the Unitil Corporation since 2009. President Obama announced his intention to nominate Adams to be the tenth Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities in April 2014, and the nomination was confirmed by the Senate in July 2014.