Cynthia Barnhart '81

Cynthia Barnhart ’81, Ph.D., is the provost and Abraham J. Siegel Professor of Management Science and Professor of Operations Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Vermont in 1981 and her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from MIT in 1988.

Barnhart has held several leadership roles at MIT, including chancellor, acting dean of the School of Engineering, and co-director of the Operations Research Center and the Center for Transportation and Logistics. At UVM, she has served on advisory boards for Civil and Environmental Engineering and the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences.

An elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, Barnhart is also a fellow of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS). She currently serves on the board of trustees at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and has held leadership roles with INFORMS, including serving as its president.

Barnhart was first elected to the UVM Board of Trustees by the self-perpetuating board in 2014 and currently serves as the Board’s Chair. Her current term as a trustee of the University of Vermont expires in March 2030. She and her husband, Mark Baribeau ’81, have two daughters, Olivia and Julia.