Meaghan Blight

President Meaghan Blight credits her grandmother with getting her to the position she holds today.

“My grandmother used to sit me at the dinner table with a full place setting laid out in front of me,” she says. Despite the fact that our family didn’t have much, she told me I needed to learn how to be comfortable at a fancy dinner.

She said she didn’t want me to be embarrassed, not if, but when I found myself with a seat at the table.”

This is the mentality Blight hopes to impart to the students who attend Wesleyan College during her tenure as our 26th president.

Blight grew up in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, a largely working class community about 50 miles north of Toronto, the country’s largest city. Meaghan's family regarded education as a considerable expense for lower-income folks like them. However, her grandmother continually emphasized academic achievement as a means to scholarships and postsecondary education as a path to success.

“She would show me viewbooks from Canadian universities and tell me this was my way out,” says Blight.

Blight went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in political science from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and a master’s degree in organizational leadership from the Lang School of Business and Economics at Ontario’s University of Guelph. Her commitment to higher education as a means of changing lives continued in advancement roles at the University of Calgary and as Vice President, University Growth and Chief of Staff at Huron University College where she honed her views on the value of education in a small, engaged community.

"OUR MISSION IS CLEAR.

WE ARE INTENTIONAL ABOUT RECRUITING WOMEN FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE WHO ARE GOING TO ACCELERATE EQUALITY. WE SUPPORT, NURTURE, AND DEVELOP WOMEN WHO GRADUATE TO LEAD IN THE BOARDROOM, IN THE CLASSROOM, IN THE OPERATING ROOM, AND EVERYWHERE IN BETWEEN. THESE WOMEN ARE GOING TO MOVE THE NEEDLE ON GENDER PARITY AROUND THE WORLD.”

Meaghan Blight

This idea is what brought her to Wesleyan College. The appeal of a women's college with strategically small class sizes is that it allows young women to hone their skills as leaders while earning a world class education, providing an opportunity to change the economic landscape for women of all backgrounds.

“Education is a game changer in a woman’s life,” she says. “The women we are attracting are committed to the pursuit of gender equality and know that the best way to reach parity is through the advancement of uniquely female spaces and places that make room for their perspectives and autonomy.”

Blight is a newcomer to Middle Georgia, having moved to the region in July 2022 with her husband Kyle, her sons Jake and Cole, and her dogs, Ruby and Walter. While her oldest has traded hockey skates for football cleats, the Canadian-born family has still managed to find rinks close to home.

“Kyle has started a youth hockey/learn to skate program in Macon and has already joined a men’s hockey league up in Atlanta, and the boys love sitting in the stands at the Macon Mayhem,” she says. “You can take the family out of Canada, but you can never take Canada out of the family.”

Still, Blight and her family are embracing the life and culture in Georgia, and she is looking forward to attending as many Wolves games as she can and connecting with Wesleyan students and alumnae.

"I EXTEND MY SINCEREST GRATITUDE AND APPRECIATION TO MY PREDECESSORS, WHOSE DEDICATION AND LEADERSHIP HAVE SET THE FOUNDATION FOR OUR CONTINUED SUCCESS." - Meaghan Blight

Presidents, Wesleyan College:

George Foster Pierce (1836-1840)

William H. Ellison (1840-1851)

Edward Howell Myers (1851-1854)

Osborne Lewis Smith (1854-1859)

John Mitchell Bonnell (1859-1871)

Edward Howell Myers (1871-1874)

William Capers Bass (1874-1894)

Edgar H. Rowe (1894-1896)

John D. Hammond (1896-1898)

William J. Roberts (1898-1903)

Dupont Guerry (1903-1909)

William N. Ainsworth (1909-1912)

Charles Rush Jenkins (1912-1920)

William Fletcher Quillian (1920-1931)

Dice Robins Anderson (1931-1941)

Arthur James Moore (1941-1942)

Nenien Coatsworth McPhearson, Jr. (1942-1946)

Silas Johnson (1946-1951)

William Fletcher Quillian Acting (1951-1952)

B. Joseph Martin (1953-1959)

William Earl Strickland (1960-1979)

Frederick William Hicks III (1979-1983)

James Frederick Wilson Acting (1983)

Robert Kilgo Ackerman (1984-1997)

Nora Kizer Bell (1997-2002)

Ruth Austin Knox ’75 Acting (2002-2003)

Ruth Austin Knox ’75 (2003-2017)

Vivia A. Fowler (2017-2022)