When Bette Davis arrived at her first meeting as Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president in 1941, the two-time Oscar winner had studied the group’s bylaws and was prepared to launch a slate of reforms aimed at classing up the joint. “It became clear to me that this was a surprise,” Davis said later, of her contentious stint in the job. “I was not supposed to preside intelligently.”

Davis is the only actress ever to hold the position leading Hollywood’s most elite club, and she resigned in frustration after just two months. On Tuesday, some 76 years later, the Academy may finally select another—two-time Oscar nominee Laura Dern. Dern is among a handful of members in the running to succeed Cheryl Boone Isaacs when the marketing executive ends her four-year tenure as Academy president this month. Documentary filmmaker Rory Kennedy and casting director David Rubin are also in the mix, and any of the group’s 54 board members could be nominated during Tuesday night’s closed-door meeting at the Academy’s Wilshire Boulevard offices.

Like Davis, Dern would bring star power to the gig, and would find herself leading an unwieldy board in an industry culture that underestimates women generally, and actresses especially. But she would also be stepping up to captain an Academy with challenges that Davis could hardly have anticipated, including a diversity initiative that has roiled longtime members, a $400 million museum deep in construction that places a heavy new debt burden on the group, and the aftermath of an embarrassing Oscar night when a distracted accountant handed off the wrong envelope for best picture. Dern would be working closely with Academy C.E.O. Dawn Hudson, who has ridden out a strained partnership with Boone Isaacs and skepticism on the board over her stewardship of the Academy Museum in six years on the job.

Video: Laura Dern Explains What Happen At Her Very First Oscars

Dern’s publicist has declined multiple requests for comment on what she might do in the role, and the actress dismissed a Los Angeles Times reporter’s question about it in June as “just speculative.” I’ve interviewed and met Dern several times over years of covering the industry and the Academy, and watched as she’s taken on more responsibility there, serving as actors branch governor, speaking on behalf of the group, and presiding at events like its Oscar nominees luncheon and Governors Ball. A Hollywood native daughter who brings a measure of grit and grace, Dern may be just the one to take on a thankless, unpaid job that involves ticking people off all over town, and taking the heat publicly for every unpopular Academy decision.

For the last 25 years, the role of Academy president has been held by people who make their living behind the camera. Actors are the Academy’s largest branch and, as far as the public is concerned, they are its most appealing members, the glamorous lure to tune in on Oscar night. The more than 7,000-member group maintains an uneasy balance between the below-the-line craftspeople—the costume designers, casting directors, sound editors—and the actors and executives who wield the most power, but are often too busy running companies and shooting movies to serve on committees or scrutinize budgets.