Beverly Daniel Tatum, the former president of Spelman College in Atlanta, has been selected to received the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize from the International Center for Ethics, Justice and Public Life at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. The prize honors an individual who has made lasting scholarly contributions to racial, ethnic and/or religious relations. Dr. Tatum will receive a medal and a $25,000 prize at a ceremony in October 2018.
In announcing the award, Ron Liebowitz, president of Brandeis University, said that “Beverly Tatum has been raising important questions and encouraging innovative dialogues on issues of race for more than three decades. Her work is brilliant, and a model for all in the academy. Her experience as an influential college administrator will add important insights to the conversation on these critical issues.”
Dr. Tatum is the author of the best-selling book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race. Before serving as president of Spelman College from 2002 to 2015, Dr. Tatum was a professor of psychology and dean of the college at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Earlier in her career, she taught at Westfield State College in Massachusetts and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
She is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Dr. Tatum earned a master’s degree at the Hartford Seminary and a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Michigan.
