Jill M Tiefenthaler

Jill Tiefenthaler became Colorado College’s 13th president on July 1, 2011. Tiefenthaler is a leading scholar in the field of the economics of higher education, and is also regularly called on to speak about the value of the liberal arts. Her essay on the economic challenges for liberal arts colleges appears in “Remaking College: Innovation and the Liberal Arts” (Johns Hopkins University Press, October 2013), and she has offered her expertise on this issue in numerous presentations across the country. Tiefenthaler's talks on the importance of the liberal arts includes her speech, "Innovation and Collaboration: A Liberal Arts Education as a Catalyst for New Ideas," which she has delivered to several universities throughout China. As professor of economics at the college, she regularly teaches a class in the department of economics. After receiving her Ph.D. in economics from Duke University, she joined the faculty of Colgate University in 1991, also serving as department chair, associate dean of the faculty, and senior adviser to the president. Before becoming president of Colorado College, she served as provost and professor of economics at Wake Forest University President Tiefenthaler is originally from Iowa, where she grew up on a farm and worked for her family’s popcorn business before attending Saint Mary’s College in South Bend, Indiana. She is married to Kevin Rask, a research professor in economics at Colorado College. They have two teenaged children, Olivia and Owen.