Danielle R. Holley was appointed the twentieth president of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. She will take office on July 1.
“It is an understatement to say I am excited to join the vibrant and dynamic Mount Holyoke community,” said president-elect Holley. “There hasn’t been a more important and critical time in recent history in which we need students who are empowered through their liberal arts education to go out and improve communities both here in the United States and around the world.”
Mount Holyoke College is a selective liberal art educational institution for women. The college enrolls about 2,200 undergraduate students and slightly more than 100 graduate students. African Americans make up 5 percent of the undergraduate student body.
In 2014, President-elect Holley was named dean and a professor of law at the Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. Previously she was associate dean and a professor of law at the University of South Carolina Law School. Earlier in her career, she taught at the Hofstra University School of Law in New York. Her scholarship focuses on the governance of public schools, increasing access to higher education, and diversity in the legal profession.
Professor Holley is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Law School. Before entering the academic world, she practiced civil litigation at the prestigious Fulbright & Jaworski law firm in Houston.
