WASHINGTON, D.C. — Just before taking the stage to speak about land conservation in 2015, Mary Pope Hutson received the call that her alma mater, the women-only Sweet Briar College located in the heart of Virginia, was on the verge of closing its doors. Hutson jumped into action to save the school and has spent the years since protecting its mission as a place where women can learn, lead, and thrive.
In a new profile for its “Champion Women” series, Independent Women’s Features (IW Features), the grassroots storytelling and original journalism arm of Independent Women, highlights Hutson’s fight to preserve one of America’s last women’s colleges and her mission to ensure an environment where women can thrive as “citizens of consequence.”
Sweet Briar College President Mary Pope Maybank Hutson
President Hutson told IW Features:
“Single-sex education does give you a very focused approach. The ability to focus in on unique areas of women’s strengths, and that is becoming empowered with your voice, understanding your voice, talking freely about how you build community… you’re able to also test your ideas and test them freely and be able to discuss them and have open dialogue.”
Hutson’s commitment to the college is rooted in her own experience at Sweet Briar, where she was a student-athlete and tour guide. Today, she serves as the college’s first alumna president. Reflecting on her leadership style, which was forged on the tennis and basketball courts, she noted with a smile, “I like to call the plays.”
During her time at Sweet Briar College, Mary Pope Hutson was a member of the 1981 Championship Tennis Team (plaque featured above)
Following graduation, Hutson secured a job in Washington, DC, after being inspired by speakers who’d visited Sweet Briar while she was a student. Hutson, an adventurer at heart, found herself working in a role with the U.S. Department of the Interior in the Office of Territorial and International Affairs, which took her to the U.S. territories, and later as a diplomat in Nairobi, Kenya.
As a Sweet Briar alumna and former athlete, Hutson understands the importance of women-only spaces firsthand. The college was founded through Indiana Fletcher Williams’ will, which placed her family’s plantation into a trust to require the property be used to educate women in the memory of her daughter, Daisy, who died at 16.
When Sweet Briar’s board moved to close the college in 2015, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that the school remained bound by Williams’ bequest, helping pave the way for a settlement that kept Sweet Briar open with a new board and $12 million in alumnae donations.
In Hutson’s words, Sweet Briar is “a charitable gift of land and money to create a mission for women and young girls.” Hutson has since remained steadfast in protecting Sweet Briar’s women-only legacy, as one of only three female-only colleges left in America. In 2024, the college announced it would admit only female students who were “consistently living and identifying as a woman.”
It was “a bold decision,” Hutson admitted. But she said it was also core to Sweet Briar and its founder’s intentions.
Sweet Briar College “Vixens” on the equestrian team
Today, Sweet Briar’s campus is known for its 100-year-old equestrian program, vineyard, 26,000-square-foot greenhouse, and 2,847-acre campus. Hutson says that the school’s core leadership program is designed specifically for women to become “citizens of consequence.”
“The core of the work is to support a college for women, stand for women strongly,” Hutson told IW Features. “We know that this is a place of safety… You are inspired to really be a woman of consequence.”
Sweet Briar College is home to a stunning 2,847-acre campus and 26,000 square foot greenhouse
“I have a little poster on [a] little card above my light switch in my office that says ‘proceed as if success is inevitable,’” Hutson told IW Features. “That’s what we’re here to do.”
READ THE FULL PROFILE HERE: Mary Pope Hutson Is Saving One of America’s Last Women’s Colleges
IW Features’ “Champion Women” series showcases the remarkable women who make up the fabric of America. These are women who inspire generations, give back to their communities, seek change for good, reach new heights, break barriers, tell the truth, care for their families, and believe in what they do.
See more “Champion Women” profiles below:
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- Champion Women: Mary Helen Bowers Wants Every Woman To Find Her Inner Ballerina
- Champion Women: Why This Iraq Veteran Launched Operation Juliet to Fight for Female Veterans Like Her
- Champion Women: Brittany Hugoboom Is Founding the Future of Femininity
- Champion Women: How Emily Jashinsky Is Bringing Honest Journalism Back to D.C.
- Champion Women: How Isabel Brown Is Doing It All as a Mom, Wife, and Voice of Her Generation
- Champion Women: Celebrating Women Behind the Trump Administration’s Successful First Year
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