President Emerita Nancy Oliver Gray Returns to Lead Hollins University as Interim President

Nancy Oliver Gray has been named interim president of Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia. The women’s college enrolls just under 800 students.

Dr. Gray will assume her new duties on August 12, 2019. Pareena Lawrence, who has been president of Hollins for the past two years, recently announced she was stepping down from her post “to pursue her long-standing interest in international education and development.”

Gray served as the 11th president of Hollins University for 12 years before her retirement in 2017. During her presidency she oversaw the school’s largest fundraising campaign, the addition of new academic programs, and the renovation of numerous campus buildings. Since her retirement, she has been serving as a senior consultant with Gonser Gerber, where she advises schools and nonprofit organizations across the country on issues of institutional leadership and advancement.

Before coming to Hollins in 2005, Gray served as president of Converse College in South Carolina for five and a half years. Earlier in her career, she was vice president for institutional advancement at both Rider University and Princeton Theological Seminary.

Gray is a graduate of Vanderbilt University in Nashville. She holds a master of education degree from what is now the University of North Texas.