Isabel Roche is the Executive Director for Special Programs in Higher Education at Endeavor Foundation, where she works to advance the Foundation’s commitment to societal and planetary good with a focus on education and oversees the Endeavor Lab Colleges project, a collaboration among a group of small liberal arts colleges with the aim of enhancing their ability to deliver an empowering liberal arts education in a rapidly changing world. Prior to joining Endeavor in 2021, she served as a faculty member, provost, and then interim president at Bennington College in Vermont. A scholar of 19 th -Century French literature, Isabel is the author of Character and Meaning in the Novels of Victor Hugo (Purdue University Press, 2006), numerous journal articles, and opinion pieces on issues in higher education. Isabel holds a B.A. in English and French from Bates College and a PhD in French Literature from New York University.