Phylicia Rashad stepping down as dean of Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts

Phylicia Rashad is stepping down as dean of Howard University’s Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts.

The Tony Award-winning actor is stepping down as dean at the end of her 2023-24 academic term. Dr. Wayne A. I. Frederick, the university’s outgoing president, announced Rashad’s exit in an email thanking her for her time with the esteemed HBCU and highlighting her contributions.

“In 2021, Dean Rashad returned to alma mater to lead the re-establishment of the College of Fine Arts as an independent college and to restore it to its rightful place as the center for arts and creativity at Howard University,” Frederick wrote. “The college was renamed in honor of world-renowned actor, playwright, director, cultural activist, and Howard alumnus, the late Chadwick A. Boseman.

“During Dean Rashad’s tenure, contributions to Fine Arts programming at Howard have increased significantly, anchored by a $5.4 million gift from Netflix to establish The Chadwick A. Boseman Memorial Scholarship.”

Rashad was a theater acting major at Howard, graduating magna cum laude with a bachelor’s in fine arts in 1970. She launched her career on Broadway before playing Bill Cosby’s TV wife, Clair Huxtable, on the popular 1980s sitcom “The Cosby Show.” She has starred in numerous stage, film and television projects in the years since.