Lena Hill has been appointed to be the next provost at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, beginning July 1, 2021. Dr. Hill currently serves as dean of the College and professor of English and Africana studies at the university. She has served as dean of the College since July 2018.
“My tenure as dean of the College has allowed me to form wonderful relationships with the W&L community,” Dr. Hill said, “and I am eager to continue the collaborative work of advancing our exceptional academic program. We are in the midst of a challenging year, but the difficulties we are confronting remind me of our core strengths and resilience. I look forward to the work ahead.”
Prior to joining Washington and Lee, Hill was associate vice president and interim chief diversity officer at the University of Iowa, leading three major units of the university — the Center for Diversity and Enrichment, the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, and the Diversity Resources Team. She joined the faculty at Iowa in 2006 as an assistant professor of English and African American studies, receiving tenure as an associate professor in 2013.
Hill’s scholarship focuses on African American literature, primarily of the 20th century. She is the author of the 2014 book Visualizing Blackness and the Creation of the African American Literary Tradition (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
Dr. Hill holds a bachelor’s degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C. She earned a Ph.D. in English from Yale University.