Linda Strong-Leek Is the New Provost at Berea College in Kentucky

Linda Strong-Leek was appointed provost at Berea College in Kentucky. She is the first African-American to serve as a senior academic administrator at Berea College.

Since 2015, Dr. Strong-Leek had been serving as vice president for diversity and inclusion at the college. Earlier in 2012, she was named associate vice president for academic affairs. Dr. Strong-Leek is also a professor of women’s and gender studies.

Prior to joining the faculty at Berea College in 2002, Dr. Strong-Leek taught at Florida International University in Miami. She is the author of Excising the Spirit: A Literary Analysis of Female Circumcision (Africa World Press, 2009).

Dr. Stong-Leek holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from North Carolina Central University in Durham. She earned a Ph.D. in English with concentrations in African and African American literature and African American history at Michigan State University.