Linda Thompson will be the 21st president of Westfield State University in Massachusetts. She will begin her new role on July 1.
Westfield State University enrolls slightly more than 5,000 undergraduate students and more than 700 graduate students, according to the latest statistics provided by the U.S. Department of Education. African Americans make up 5 percent of the undergraduate student body.
“I am honored and thrilled for this upcoming opportunity to work with faculty and staff at Westfield State University to elevate its student-centered mission and make it one of the best regional universities in the country, ” said Dr. Thompson.
Dr. Thompson has served as dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Massachusetts Boston since 2017 and previously held a similar position at West Chester University in Pennsylvania. Earlier, she served as provost and vice-chancellor at historically Black North Carolina A&T State University, dean of nursing at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, and associate dean at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. Dr. Thompson is the co-author of Losing Control: Loving a Black Child with Bipolar Disorder (American Sociologic Association, 2008).
Dr. Thompson earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing at Wayne State University in Detroit. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
