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D. Holley
Danielle Holley, JD | President

Mount Holyoke College

We are delighted to announce the completion of the search for the 20th President of Mount Holyoke College. Following a rigorous, comprehensive, and national search, Danielle Holley, JD has been selected and will assume this role on July 1, 2023. 

Holley joins Mount Holyoke from Howard University School of Law, where she currently serves as dean and professor of law since joining Howard in 2014. She is a scholar of education law and civil rights with a focus on the governance of public schools, increasing access to higher education, and diversity in the legal profession. Prior to joining the Howard faculty, Holley was the associate dean for academic affairs and Distinguished Professor of Education Law at the University of South Carolina. Prior to her career in academia, Holley practiced civil litigation at Fulbright & Jaworski in Houston, Texas.

An expert on diversity and higher education, Holley has won numerous awards, including the inaugural Impact Award from the Association of American Law Schools, the American Bar Foundation’s Montgomery Summer Research Diversity Fellowship Distinguished Alumni Award, the Lutie Lytle Conference Outstanding Scholar Award, the National Bar Association’s Heman Sweatt Award, and the University of South Carolina Educational Foundation’s Outstanding Service Award. 

Holley serves as the co-chair of the Board of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, on the board of the Law School Admission Council and on the board of the Howard University Middle School of Math and Science. She is a moderator for the Aspen Institute, a Liberty Fellow through the Aspen Global Leadership Network, and a fellow with the American Council on Education.

Holley holds a BA from Yale University and a JD from Harvard Law School, and she was a law clerk to Judge Carl E. Stewart on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Keight Tucker Kennedy and Lisa Savereid led this search with Chloë Kanas.