Safa Zaki

Safa Zaki is a psychologist, cognitive scientist, and academic administrator serving as the 16th president of Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine.

[1] Prior to her work at Bowdoin, Zaki served as dean of faculty at Williams College.

[2] Zaki was born in 1968 in Cairo, Egypt and raised in Tanzania, Syria, Jordan, and Trinidad and Tobago.

[1] Prior to her appointment at Bowdoin, Zaki served on the faculty of Williams College for 22 years.

[5] In 2024 and 2025, Zaki came under fire for suppressing the Gaza solidarity encampment at Bowdoin and allegedly rejecting the result of a student body divestment referendum.