Spelman College, a Black institution and women’s college in Atlanta, Georgia, recently named Dr. Mary Schmidt Campbell as its 10th president. Dr. Campbell is no stranger to the Black college experience. Dr. Campbell’s father served as president of the board of trustees at Cheyney University, one of the country’s oldest HBCUs, and also is an alumni at the institution, according to the school website. One of her three sons currently walks the historic grounds of Morehouse College as its provost and is married to a Spelman alumna. In fact, Dr. Campbell recently came out of retirement last May from her positions at NYU and Tisch and says “fate threw a corky turn” and brought her to Spelman.
After getting a call from outward-bound president Beverly Daniel Tatum to visit campus last year “out of the blue” Dr. Campbell says that she was wowed by her experience: “This is an extraordinary campus… I don’t think I ever been on a campus that had this much energy and passion on it,” she said and filed away, returning back to work on her book, a biography on the artist Romare Bearden. The rest is history. “Spelman College could not have made a more outstanding choice than Mary Schmidt Campbell to be its next president,” said John Sexton, President of New York University. Dr. Campbell, who boasts several years of rebuilding and growing and creating capital for organizations that support people of color, is tasked to continue Spelman’s mission to educate and train its students into global leaders of today. “…my background and my experience actually might be a perfect fit for Spelman at this particular time in its history,” said Dr. Campbell.
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