Graves to step down as Girard College president

Autumn Adkins Graves, the first African American and first female president of Girard College, will leave the historic school in June, she said Tuesday.

Graves, 39, presided over a difficult stretch for the private North Philadelphia boarding school founded by the 19th-century merchant-banker Stephen Girard for orphan boys. Serious money problems forced the school to enroll fewer students, lay off staff, and end a weekend residential program.

Graves said family concerns led to her decision to step down. A promotion for her husband, who works in New York - and her own doctoral-program studies - mean that the time is right to leave, she said.

She has great affection for Girard, Graves said, and will continue to assist the Board of City Trusts, which runs the school, on a volunteer basis.

"I love the school," Graves said in an interview. "I love the mission, and the kids here are amazing."

Girard provides free education, room, and board to 465 low-income boys and girls in first through 12th grades on its 43-acre campus. The tough economy has meant challenges for the school - enrollment has shrunk from 645 when Graves came to Girard in 2009.

Still, Graves said, she is proud of what she has been able to accomplish - new approaches to science, math, and world-language instruction, a pre-engineering program, more outreach to young alumni, and more emphasis on fund-raising and community partnerships.

"The financial challenges have made our work more difficult, but yet a lot of great things have been accomplished," she said.

The school is in the middle of a strategic-planning process, and Graves said a new leader was needed to see that through.

Mayor Nutter, in a statement, praised Graves, who he said "served Girard College and its students with great professionalism and creativity during a very difficult fiscal period." He said she was "a powerful role model for the school's students and the wider community."

But she was a divisive figure to some, who felt Graves dismantled Girard traditions and resented outside interference.

Still, Bernard Smalley, head of the Board of City Trusts' Girard College Committee, said the students, staff, parents, and leadership "owe her a debt of gratitude."

"Autumn has spearheaded the effort to make Girard one of the preeminent urban boarding schools in America, and she has performed her duties with skill and devotion," Smalley said in a statement.

An interim president will be chosen soon, said alumnus Kevin Feeley, serving as a spokesman for the Board of City Trusts, and a national search will be conducted for a permanent replacement.

Feeley credited Graves with raising Girard's profile.

"Girard is a very insular place, both because of its design but also because of the way it's operated for years," Feeley said. "Autumn has been great about opening the school to the outside."

Feeley, who called Graves "a tremendous force for good for Girard," also said she has done "a great job of trying to spread the story of Stephen Girard. I think she's just done a terrific job about talking about the man and his philanthropy."

Graves came to Girard after working at private and Quaker schools in New York, Washington, Minneapolis, and Pennsylvania. She will pursue her doctorate in higher education administration at the University of Pennsylvania.