A psychologist and cognitive scientist who currently serves as dean of faculty at Williams College will become the first woman to lead Bowdoin College, the school announced Thursday.

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Safa Zaki is currently responsible for the curriculum and for the recruitment, appointment and promotion of faculty at Williams. She will succeed Bowdoin's Clayton Rose to become the 16th president at the 229-year-old liberal arts college in Maine. She begins her duties on July 1.

"My years at Williams have been wonderful, and I know Bowdoin shares many similar values, along with its own unique sense of community and its own traditions," Zaki said.

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Zaki was born in Egypt and grew up in countries including Tanzania, Syria, Jordan, and Trinidad and Tobago. She came to the U.S. to receive her master's degree and doctorate from Arizona State University after earning her undergraduate degree in psychology at the American University in Cairo.

When he departs at the end of the academic year, Rose will have served eight years at the college, which is home to 2,000 students.