CONNECT . MOTIVATE . INSPIRE .
If we really want to synthesize the impact of Black women’s leadership at HBCUs let us start with facts:
sacred vocation. Black women and Latinas make up a combined 9% of leaders in academic affairs, 2% in athletics, 3% in facilities, 14% in student affairs, and 3% in information technology. At 17% Black/ Latina representation, fiscal affairs are the most diverse area of employment when it comes to leadership roles. Clearly, more effort must be put toward advancing Black, Indigenous, and other women of color to executive leadership positions in all areas of higher education. Notwithstanding the inherent odds of success, these women prevailed and led with incalculable impact lifting these institutions from the graveyard of HBCUs, to stable, and firmly stable positions. From Dr. Mary McCloud Bethune- Cookman, who started Bethune Cookman University with only $1.50 cents, to Dr. Anna Julia Cooper, who served as a secondary school teacher, a principal and eventually president of Frelinghuysen University in Washington, DC, to noted educator, anthropologist, and the quintessential Sistah president Dr. Johnetta B. Cole, Black women presidents have taken the least and done the most to contribute to the long-term sustainability of our nations higher education institutions. Though denied the agency to make a difference, no other leader of the academy has demonstrated the powerful role Black women leaders have in the life of HBCUs in our nation despite the dual discriminations of racism and sexism that defined their lives. In 1892, Dr. Anna Julia Cooper said, “woman’s work and woman’s influence are needed as never before.” Nothing has changed, Black women will always be leadership commodities to the academy.
After more than a decade serving as president of TSU, President Glenda Glover will retire this year with honor and distinction. Her remarkable LeadHERship of service includes exponentially increasing fundraising; and bringing national acclaim to TSU with luminaries like Vice President Kamala Harris, and Oprah Winfrey as speakers on the campus. Chancellor Karrie G. Dixon led ECSU to the highest enrollment in nine years with 2,166 students reported in 2023. Under her LeadHERship the sky is truly the limit for new academic
programs. According to Zippia, only 2.2% of airline pilots are Black. ECSUs Aviation Science Program is one of less than 10 programs at HBCUS that is meeting the demand to educate and train students for careers and opportunities in aviation.
Bringing Stillman back from the brink of near closure, under the LeadHERShip of President Emeritus Cynthia A. Warrick, community engagement was re-imagined through the establishment of partnerships with Arts N Autism and House Tuscaloosa. She procured over $14 million in grants, including a $7.9 million dollar grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) for a new biomedical facility. She was also a significant voice in the
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