The Doorkeeper, the Choirboy, and the Singer of Psalms

Laurie L. Patton is the seventeenth president of Middlebury College, ranked #5 in U. S. News and World Report’s classification “National Liberal Arts Colleges,” and she is the first woman to lead the institution in its 218-year history. Patton is a leading authority on South Asian history and culture and the author or editor of eleven books in these fields. She has translated the ancient Hindu text, The Bhagavad Gita, for Penguin Classics Series, and is the author of three books of poetry—the most recent book, House Crossing, was published in May 2018. She grew up in Danvers, Massachusetts, and graduated from Choate Rosemary Hall in 1979. Patton is married to Shalom Goldman, the Pardon Tillinghast Professor of History, Philosophy, and Religion in the Department of Religion at Middlebury College.