Jean Parvin Bordewich, a playwright, consultant and former Congressional Staff member, is the new chair of Guilford College’s Board of Trustees. She attended Guilford for two years before completing her education at Brown University.

Jean, who is succeeding Ione Taylor ‘76, joined the board in the fall of 2022. She will lead her first trustees meeting as chair in May. She’s excited about the opportunity of working with other trustees and the greater Guilford community about growing the College.

“I want to help secure Guilford’s future as a Quaker-grounded liberal arts college,” she says. “That’s what led me to become involved in fundraising for the Guilford Forward Fund a few years back and then to accept a position as a trustee.”

Jean says board leadership is a shared responsibility. “I am counting on working with a strong team. [President] Kyle Farmbry is moving Guilford into an exciting new era. I want to be part of that,” she says.

After two decades in politics and government, Jean spent eight years at the Hewlett Foundation in Menlo Park, Calif., one of the largest grant-making foundations in the United States, where she managed a portfolio of grants related to strengthening U.S. democracy, with a particular emphasis on Congress and the executive branch.

Previously, Jean spent more than 20 years as a Congressional staff member for Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York and others, serving as staff director of the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, the committee most involved in the administration of the Senate and oversight of legislative branch agencies, election law and campaign finance.

Jean lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband, historian and author Fergus M. Bordewich, whose most recent book, "Klan War," was published by Knopf in October 2023.

Guilford’s Board of Trustees is a governing body with oversight for fiscal and academic affairs and the overall welfare of the College.