Biography
Laura Skandera Trombley was born Laura Elise Skandera and raised in Southern California. At the age of 16, she began attending Pepperdine University, where she earned a BA (1981) and MA summa cum laude (1983). She then earned a PhD in English literature (1989) from the University of Southern California. While at USC, Skandera Trombley was the Lester and Irene Finkelstein Fellow and received the Virginia Barbara Middleton Scholarship and the English Graduate Student Scholarship.
Upon completion of her PhD, Skandera Trombley accepted a teaching position at the State University of New York in Potsdam where she was awarded early tenure as associate professor of English and held several administrative posts, including special assistant to the president, director of the Teaching, Tenure and Promotion Assistance Program and assistant provost. In 1997, Skandera Trombley assumed the post of vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty at Coe College, a private liberal arts college in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She became president of Pitzer College in 2002.
Skandera Trombley has authored five books—the most recent, Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years, was published by Knopf in March 2010. The paperback edition was released on March 8, 2011.
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