Hollins University has announced that Mary Dana Hinton will become the school’s next president. She will officially take office on August 1.
Hollins University is a liberal arts educational institution for women in Roanoke, Virginia. According to the latest data supplied to the U.S. Department of Education, the university enrolled just over 800 students. African Americans make up 10 percent of the undergraduate student body.
“I am overjoyed to be named the 13th president of Hollins University,” said Dr. Hinton. “Hollins’ steadfast commitment to the education of women, its grand ambitions for the future, and the strong desire to not only be an inclusive leader in women’s education but a higher education innovator reflects the incredible vision and enormous potential of the university. I am grateful for the opportunity to, alongside the Hollins board, faculty, staff, alumnae, and, of course, the outstanding student body, envision and work toward an incredibly bright future.”
Since 2014, Dr. Hinton has served as president of the Collge of St. Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Before becoming president at the College of St. Benedict, Dr. Hinton was vice president for academic affairs at Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, New York. Earlier in her career, she was associate vice president for academic affairs and chief planning and diversity officer at Misericordia University in Dallas, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Hinton is a graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, where she majored in psychology. She earned a master’s degree in clinical child psychology from the University of Kansas and a doctorate in religion and religious education from Fordham University in New York. Dr. Hinton is the author of The Commercial Church: Black Churches and the New Religious Marketplace in America (Lexington Books, 2011).
