Lily McNair Will Be the First Woman President of Tuskegee University in Alabama

Tuskegee University, the historically Black educational institution in Alabama that was founded by Booker T. Washington, has announced that Lily D. McNair will be its next president. More than 150 candidates were considered for the position. Since its founding in 1881, the university has had only seven presidents. When she takes office on July 1, Dr. McNair will be the first woman to lead the university.

Tuskegee University, located east of the capital city of Montgomery, Alabama, enrolls about 2,400 graduate students and 450 graduate students. Women make up 63 percent of the undergraduate student body.

In accepting the appointment, Dr. McNair said, “I am honored and humbled to be selected to serve as the eighth president of Tuskegee University. The historic contributions of the university’s students, faculty and alumni are well known and valued throughout the nation. I very much look forward to building on the legacy of my predecessors so that Tuskegee University will ascend to even greater heights in the years to come.”

Dr. McNair has been serving as provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Wagner College on Staten Island in New York City. Before becoming provost in 2011, Dr. McNair was associate provost for research and a professor of psychology at Spelman College in Atlanta. She has also taught at the State University of New York at New Paltz and the University of Georgia and was a psychologist at the counseling center at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York.

Dr. McNair is a graduate of Princeton University in New Jersey. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in psychology from Stony Brook University of the State University of New York System.