Faculty Breakfast with Johnnetta Cole
Each year, the Citizen Scholars Program of the UMass Office of Community Service Learning at Commonwealth College honors one nationally recognized scholar who has forwarded civic engagement, democratic education, and service learning in their communities and across the country. This year's Distinguished Citizen Scholar, Johnnetta B. Cole, is no stranger to UMass Amherst. As a former faculty member in Anthropology and former Vice Provost, Dr. Cole is familiar with UMass Amherst's commitment to education for the common good. Dr. Cole will speak with faculty, staff, and university officials about her experiences with community engagement at all levels of higher education.
Dr. Johnnetta B. Cole is the president of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, North Carolina. Dr. Cole made history in 1987 by becoming the first African American woman to serve as president of Spelman College. In May 2004 she became the first African American to serve as Chair of the Board of United Way of America. Dr. Cole is President emerita of Spelman College and Professor emerita of Emory University from which she retired as Presidential Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Women’s Studies and African American Studies.
Her most recent publication is a book co-authored with Dr. Beverly Guy-Sheftall: Gender Talk: The Struggle for Women’s Equality in African American Communities. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Anthropological Association.
Dr. Cole has a long and distinguished career as an educator and humanitarian. Her work as a college professor and president, her published works, her speeches and her community service, consistently address issues of racial, gender and all other forms of discrimination.
