Beverly Daniel Tatum Stepping Down as President of Spelman College Next June

Beverly Daniel Tatum announced that she will leave her post as president of Spelman College in Atlanta at the end of the 2014-15 academic year. Spelman College is a historically Black liberal arts college for women that enrolls about 2,150 students. Dr. Tatum expressed her wish to return to her research and writing. She made her decision known when Spelman announced the successful completion of $157.8 million fundraising effort, the largest in the school’s history.

President Tatum has led Spelman College since 2002. Previously she was a professor of psychology and dean of the college at Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. Earlier in her career, she taught at Westfield State College in Massachusetts and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

President Tatum is a graduate of Wesleyan University in Connecticut. Dr. Tatum 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.