Biography of Margaret Marsh
Interim Chancellor

In 1998, Margaret Marsh was appointed dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, which includes the College of Arts and Sciences, the Honors College, University College, and the Graduate School.

In May 2007, Marsh was appointed interim chancellor of Rutgers-Camden upon the retirement of Roger Dennis, who now serves as founding dean of the Drexel Law School. She will serve in this capacity during a national search for Dennis’ permanent successor.

As dean, she served as the chief academic and budgetary officer for these schools and colleges, which enroll 70 percent of the students at Rutgers-Camden in 17 departments and 12 graduate programs in the natural sciences, mathematics, social sciences, fine and performing arts, humanities, childhood studies, computer science, and several professional fields, as well as collaborative graduate programs with the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

A leader in developing innovative learning and research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students alike, Marsh has a proven record of exemplary success, including the launch of an Honors College that attracts and retains top undergraduate students; the creation of joint and dual degree programs to help students fast-track their graduate studies; and programs that offer direct support for students wishing to pursue international studies or research opportunities with Rutgers-Camden’s excellent faculty.

Under her leadership, Rutgers-Camden has expanded its portfolio of graduate programs with the launch of master’s-level programs in fine arts/creative writing, criminal justice, computer science, childhood studies, and psychology. The campus welcomed its first doctoral students in September 2007, when the Rutgers-Camden PhD program in childhood studies became the nation’s very first in this emerging discipline.

Marsh received her bachelor’s degree from Rutgers-Camden, and earned her PhD in American history from Rutgers-New Brunswick.

Before joining Rutgers, she was a professor of history at Temple University, where she developed the PhD program in women’s history and served as chair of the history department. In 1996, she received Temple’s Paul W. Eberman Faculty Research Prize for excellence in scholarly contributions.

Marsh is one of the nation’s leading experts in the history of reproductive medicine and technology and has been the recipient of two major multi-year research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities. She also has been a history fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow.

She is the author of four books and dozens of articles and research papers. Her latest book, "The Fertility Doctor: John Rock and the Reproductive Revolution", co-authored with her sister, Wanda Ronner, MD, will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in September 2008. "The Empty Cradle: Infertility in America from Colonial Times to the Present," also co-authored with Ronner, was named an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice Magazine. Her other two books are “Anarchist Women” and “Suburban Lives.”

Marsh is a resident of Haddonfield.