Virginia Miller Ambler, Ph.D.

About Ginger

Dr. Ambler is Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Public Safety at W&M where she majored in English and graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1988. After earning her M.A. in Higher Education & Student Affairs at Ohio State, she worked at Franklin & Marshall College before returning to W&M. She completed a Ph.D. in Educational Policy, Planning, & Leadership in 2006 and assumed the role of Vice President for Student Affairs in 2009. In December 2023 Dr. Ambler assumed responsibility for W&M’s public safety division as well and was named Senior Vice President. In this role, Dr. Ambler has broad responsibility for student welfare, leadership development, accessibility services, honor & conduct, conflict resolution and education, academic enrichment, care support services, orientation, student organizations, civic engagement, residential living, campus recreation, student health and counseling, police, emergency management, risk management, and threat assessment. Under her leadership, William & Mary has been named ten times since 2014 as a “Most Promising Place to Work in Student Affairs” by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine and the American College Personnel Association (ACPA).

A member of the president’s Executive Leadership Team, Dr. Ambler is also co-chair of the university’s Emergency Management Team, co-chair of W&M’s Democracy Initiative, and she also serves on the Risk Assessment Committee and the Threat Assessment Team. She has presented at national conferences on such topics as college student flourishing, assessing campus culture, serving graduate students, college student mental health, campus crisis management, leveraging capital projects in support of campus community, and understanding media relations. An Executive Associate Professor in the School of Education, her doctoral research – Who Flourishes in College? Using Positive Psychology and Student Involvement Theory to Explore Mental Health Among Traditionally Aged Undergraduates – was recognized nationally with NASPA’s 2007 Melvene D. Hardee Dissertation of the Year Award.

In addition to Phi Beta Kappa, Dr. Ambler has been inducted into Omicron Delta Kappa, Mortar Board, Order of Omega, and Kappa Delta Pi honor societies.  At Commencement in May 2006, she was honored with William & Mary’s Thatcher Prize for Excellence in Graduate and Professional Study. She is the author of a chapter published in the Positive Psychology Perspective Series on the topic of human flourishing and she teaches in William & Mary’s School of Education. Ginger was honored in 2013 by the faculty in the Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) program at The Ohio State University with the Maude A. Stewart Award for exceptional leadership, innovation, and service to the profession. In 2015 she received the Dr. Kent L. Gardner Award from the Association of Fraternity and Sorority Advisors, an award given nationally to only one Vice President for Student Affairs for support of fraternity & sorority life.

In the broader community, Ginger serves on the Board of Directors for Peninsula Pastoral Counseling Center, where she is the past-president. She’s served on the Board of Directors for Riverside Doctors Hospital Williamsburg and was a long-time member of the Williamsburg Youth Harp Society’s Board of Directors. She also served a six-year term on the W&M Libraries Board of Directors, and has been both a trustee and vestry member of her local faith congregation. She is married to Richard Ambler, W&M ‘86, a retired National Board-Certified high school teacher. They have four adult children and two young grandchildren.