Esq.
Lawyer

Shirley D. Peterson, Esq.

Close inspection reveals that deserts only seem like dry places. Despite the observer’s first impression, streams run through arid regions and flowers bloom. Shirley Peterson is human testimony to the desert’s possibilities. Growing up in a religious family in rural, southeastern Colorado, both a geographical and an educational desert, she went on to become an exceptional public servant.

Few people from Peterson’s farming community attended college, and no one from Shirley’s family had ever enjoyed that opportunity. At age twelve, though, she saw an issue of Look magazine that featured an article about the prestigious Seven Sisters colleges. As she pored over the article, with its photos of young women reading books against a backdrop of ivy covered buildings, she decided that someday she would be one of those women. When it was time to prepare for college, the Look article was still in her mind, and she applied for admission only to members of the Seven Sisters. Ultimately, she chose Bryn Mawr.

Peterson arrived at Bryn Mawr at seventeen and was soon awestruck by the college’s President, Katharine Elizabeth McBride, known to the students simply as Miss McBride. While listening to Miss McBride speak to the year’s new students, Peterson made another life decision, like the one she had made while holding Look in her hands: some day she, too, would be a college president.

Prior to the momentous decisions to attend a Seven Sisters College and to be a college president, however, the young Shirley had made another decision. At age eight, she determined that she would be a lawyer. Received wisdom indicated that girls did not grow up to become lawyers, and with that gauntlet dropped, she set her sights on a legal career. After graduating cum laude from Bryn Mawr, she fulfilled this goal by entering New York University Law School. Thereafter she pursued a private law practice, temporarily postponing leadership roles in higher education.

After nearly twenty years in private law practice, Peterson was called to public service as Assistant Attorney General (Tax Division), United States Department of Justice. As Assistant Attorney General, a position appointed by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate, she was responsible for supervising and conducting criminal litigation arising under the internal revenue laws. In this capacity, she argued on behalf of the United States before the United States Supreme Court and other Federal Courts of Appeal. She received the Department of Justice’s Edmund J. Randolph Award in 1991.

In 1992, President Bush appointed Peterson to the office of Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, making her one of the highest ranking Lutherans in the federal government. In this demanding position, Peterson worked tirelessly to change the agency’s culture. With an emphasis on service to taxpayers, Peterson encouraged the IRS’s 115,000 employees to help people comply with the law, rather than punish them for not following the law. She received the Treasury Department’s Distinguished Service Award in 1993.

After leaving the IRS, Peterson returned briefly to private practice, but soon sought opportunities to return to public service. In 1995, she became President of Hood College, fulfilling her long-held dream. Since her arrival at Hood, the college has reinstituted regular chapel services. Peterson relishes being President of Hood College, in part because, like Bryn Mawr, its mission is the education of young women. She embraces the opportunity to serve as a role model for Hood’s students, hoping to inspire them as she was inspired.