Beverly Daniel Tatum will serve as interim president of Mount Holyoke College for the 2022-23 academic year. The college is a liberal arts educational institution for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Six percent of the student body is Black.
Dr. Tatum served as president of Spelman College in Atlanta from 2002 to 2015. Previously she was a professor of psychology and dean of the college at Mount Holyoke College. Earlier in her career, she taught at Westfield State College in Massachusetts and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
“Mount Holyoke College holds a special place in my heart as I spent 13 very happy and productive years there at a pivotal time in my career, both as a faculty member and an administrator,” Dr. Tatum said. “I am tremendously honored and delighted to be invited by the board of trustees to return as interim president during this time of leadership transition.”
Dr. Tatum is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She earned a master’s degree at the Hartford Seminary. President Tatum earned a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Michigan.
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. She has won both the Brock International Prize in Education and the American Psychological Association’s Award for Outstanding Lifetime Contributions to Psychology.
