Ann Alpers joined the S.H. Cowell board in 2004 and was elected president of the Foundation in 2005. Prior to joining the Foundation, she served as Deputy City Attorney for Health and Human Services for the City and County of San Francisco.

Ms. Alpers graduated from Stanford Law School. Following law school, she clerked for Judge William A. Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and then for Justice Harry A. Blackmun of the United States Supreme Court. She joined the faculty of the Program in Medical Ethics in 1992. She has taught health law and bioethics as a visiting professor at Stanford Law School, St. Louis University School of Law, and the University of California, Berkeley. 

She currently serves as vice chair of the board of the Greenwall Foundation and chairs the Executive Committee of Friends of the Smith College Libraries.