After a six-month national search that began Oct. 18, 2017, Tuskegee University named Dr. Lily D. McNair its next president. Tuskegee’s board of trustees announced the unanimous selection on May 8.

“I am honored and humbled to be selected to serve as the eighth president of Tuskegee University,” she said. “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, who is currently provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Wagner College in New York City, will begin her duties at Tuskegee on July 1, 2018.

“When we launched our presidential search last October, our goal was to identify someone who could champion both Tuskegee’s historic legacy and her place in the future of higher education,” said John E. Page, chair of Tuskegee’s Board of Trustees. “Our board of trustees is confident Dr. McNair brings to Tuskegee the precise skill set required to ensure we continue thriving as one of the nation’s leading HBCUs.

A clinical psychologist by training, Dr. McNair’s higher education career includes academic, research and executive appointments at Spelman College, University of Georgia, the State University of New York at New Paltz, and Vassar College. McNair holds an undergraduate degree in psychology from Princeton, and master’s and doctoral degrees in psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Since Tuskegee University’s founding in 1881, it has been under the leadership of seven presidents — the first of which was Booker T. Washington, who led the institution from 1881 to 1915.

Dr. McNair will serve as the first female president of the institution in its 136-year history.