Lily D. McNair – first female President of Tuskegee University, settles into new role

AP | Historically black Tuskegee University has named the first female president on a permanent basis in its 136-year history.

The school located in east Alabama announced early May, that trustees had picked Lily D. McNair for the position.

She becomes the 8th president of an institution founded in 1881 under the leadership of Booker T. Washington.

McNair is the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Wagner College on New York’s Staten Island. She is a clinical psychologist by training with a doctorate from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

McNair officially took her post as President of Tuskegee University on July 1.

Charlotte Morris had served as Tuskegee’s president on an interim basis since Brian Johnson’s removal last year, but McNair is the first woman to hold the job on a permanent basis.