A Newsletter of the Oberlin College
Number 10, September 1994
Johnnetta B. Cole, President of Spelman College, will be the featured speaker at the Friends of the Library annual dinner on Saturday, November 5.
Dr. Cole has established an extraordinary career as an anthropologist, teacher, author, higher-education administrator, and lecturer, becoming one of the most important figures in the American higher education community.
After graduating from Oberlin as a sociology major in 1957, Dr. Cole earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in anthropology from Northwestern University. She subsequently held teaching posts at Washington State University (where she was named Outstanding Faculty Member of the Year); at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (where she became Professor of Afro-American Studies and Anthropology and also served as Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education); and at Hunter College (where she was Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program).
Dr. Cole was named President of Spelman College in 1987. As the first African American woman President of Spelman, she has lead the historically black college for women on a path of sustained improvement into the ranks of America's best colleges. At her inauguration, Drs. Bill and Camille Cosby gave $20 million to Spelman, the single largest gift from individuals to an historically black college or university.
Dr. Cole has written extensively in the fields of anthropology, anthropological education, African American studies, and women's studies. Her two textbooks are used widely in college and university anthropology classes. In her most recent book, Conversations: Straight Talk With America's Sister President (Doubleday, 1993), she speaks directly to the concerns of African American women.
Among her many activities, Dr. Cole served on President Clinton's transition team as Cluster Coordinator for Education, Labor, and the Arts and Humanities. She currently chairs the board of the Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education as well as the president's assembly of the United Negro College Fund. Dr. Cole is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including thirty honorary degrees from American colleges and universities.
In addition to her talk following the Friends of the Library dinner on Saturday evening, November 5, she will participate in an informal question and answer session and book-signing at 3:30 p.m. that afternoon.
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