The story of Salem College goes back to 1744, when immigrants from Moravia settled in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.There, Moravians fostered communitarian values, and each individual devoted labor to community needs in exchange for food and shelter, in a system known as oeconomies.
They kept this enterprising spirit as they expanded into North Carolina and founded the town of Salem in 1772, located in today’s Winston-Salem. Moravians emphasized the importance of serving the women and girls of the community, especially through education. This was done through founding Single Sisters houses, which were communal living spaces for unmarried women, complementing Single Brothers houses. These houses allowed the community to observe the development of its young people and address individual needs. Single Sisters houses were often established in tandem with boarding schools for young women, which is how Salem College came to be.
The Little Girls’ School was founded in 1772 by Sister Elisabeth Oesterlein. The Sisters whostaffed the school were economically self-sufficient under the oeconomic model. This was a striking departure from the situation of most women in other colonial and early republican communities, who lacked the right to own property.
The school has since parted ways with the Moravian church, but this appreciation for the self-determination of Moravian women has colored Salem College’s mission throughout its history. Archives from the nineteenth century detail how administrators sought to attune the school’s resources to addressing the needs of each individual girl.
Salem grew from a girls’ school into an academy and then a college. It granted its first undergraduate degrees by 1890. This was after a years-long process of decoupling from the Moravian community and being granted an act of incorporation from the North Carolina General Assembly, allowing the college to separate the college and girls’ school and evolve into an accredited institution.
Today, Salem offers 43 majors and minors and allows Salem students to cross-register with nearby Wake Forest University. President Summer McGee, who served from 2021 to 2025, spearheaded initiatives to put Salem on the map for young women seeking to pursue health care careers. During celebrations for its 250th anniversary in 2022, Salem announced it would completely reorient its entire curriculum to focus on “health care leadership.” Salem launched 11 new academic programs, hired eight new full-time faculty members, and modified 75 existing courses. McGee helped Salem expand and reorient its heath care program to be more interdisciplinary. The core curriculum required for students in all majors is now geared toward aspects of leadership and health care.
McGee’s orientation of the college extends outside of the classroom with the launch of student leadership development programs. Salem has also launched an annual Health Research Forum which highlights innovative voices in health care, engineering, and human biology. In 2025, McGee left Salem to become president of Lenoir-Rhyne University.
The change engineered by McGee appears to be a success. For a decade, the school experienced declining enrollment and, due to its finances, its accreditation was in jeopardy. However, the 2024-2025 application cycle marked the college’s fourth straight year of increasing applications. Undergraduate enrollment has increased by 19 percent during that period. Salem credits these improvements to the visibility of the health leadership program; another factor in its rejuvenation was probably its intensified national marketing program. In June 2025 Salem’s board of trustees selected Dr. Gary Daynes as acting president while the board seeks a permanent president.