Spelman’s former president tapped to be chair of Atlanta nonprofit

President Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD, speaks to open the Spelman College 127th Commencement at the Georgia World Congress Center on Sunday, May 18, 2014, in Atlanta.

Credit: Curtis Compton

Credit: Curtis Compton

President Beverly Daniel Tatum, PhD, speaks to open the Spelman College 127th Commencement at the Georgia World Congress Center on Sunday, May 18, 2014, in Atlanta.

The former president of Spelman College has been tapped to serve as the chair of a nonprofit that strives to improve and preserve Atlanta’s Westside neighborhoods.

The Westside Future Fund board of directors chose Beverly Daniel Tatum for the position, which begins in 2020. She has served on the board as its vice-chair since its inception in 2015, and will assume the newly-created role of chair-elect in 2019.

Board Chair Richard J. Dugas Jr. said the board “unanimously agreed Dr. Tatum is the best person to serve in this new capacity.”

“With her proven commitment to the historic Westside and leadership experience in education, she will help us accelerate our impact across cradle-to-career education, resident retention and community health and wellness initiatives,” Dugas said in a press release.

Tatum served as president of Spelman, an all-female institution, from 2002 to 2015. She was one of four college presidents to receive the Carnegie Academic Leadership Award in 2013; she was the first award recipient from a historically black college or university and the first in Georgia.

She thanked Dugas for helping the Westside Future Fund “focus on providing affordable housing to enable current residents to remain in their beloved neighborhoods for years to come.”

“I deeply believe that if we continue working together, we can achieve our shared vision of building the ‘Beloved Community’ Dr. King would be proud to call home,” Tatum said in a statement.

Before becoming Spelman’s president, Tatum taught and served as dean at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.

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