Beverly Daniel Tatum, president of Spelman College, speaker for 137th Berea College Commencement May 24

Receiving their diplomas that day will be 188 seniors while another 24 are expected to complete their degree requirements by the end of the summer.

Rev. Dr. Bill Leonard, Dean of the School of Divinity at Wake Forest University, will speak at the Sunday morning Baccalaureate Service, scheduled at 10:30 a.m. in Phelps Stokes Chapel.

The day’s other public events include the Nurses Pinning Service at 8 a.m. in Union Church and a reception at 4 p.m. on the College quadrangle for graduates and guests.  Rain site will be Old Seabury Gymnasium in Seabury Center.

Since 2002, Dr. Tatum has served as president of Spelman College, the nation’s oldest historically black college for women, located in Atlanta, Ga.  In addition to being an accomplished administrator, Tatum is recognized as a scholar, teacher, race relations expert and leader in higher education.  A clinical psychologist by training, Dr. Tatum holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in clinical psychology from the University of Michigan as well as an M.A. in Religious Studies from Hartford Seminary.  The recipient of numerous honorary degrees, in 2005 Dr. Tatum was awarded the prestigious Brock International Prize in Education for her innovative leadership in the field, and recently was named among “Most Influential Georgians” by “Georgia Trend” magazine.

Her academic best-sellers include “Can We Talk About Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation,” (2007) and “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race” (1997).  She is also the author of “Assimilation Blues:  Black Families in a White Community.”

A member of the President’s Advisory Board for the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Dr. Tatum also serves on national boards including the Institute for International Education and the Council of Independent Colleges.  She is a former trustee of the Association of American Colleges and Universities and past chair of the American Council on Education Commission on Racial and Ethnic Equity in Education.

Baccalaureate speaker Rev. Dr. Bill Leonard has been a member of the faculty at Wake Forest since 1996, where he is Professor of Church History in the Department of Religion as well as serving as dean of the Divinity School.  In Kentucky, he was Professor of Church History at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville from 1975-1992 and from 1988 to 1995 was a member of the summer faculty of the Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center (AMERC) based in Berea.  He currently serves on the board of AMERC.  Leonard has also held teaching positions at Samford University, Yale Divinity School and Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka, Japan.

An ordained Baptist minister, Rev. Dr. Leonard has served as pastor of First Community Church in Southboro, Mass., and as interim pastor of more than 25 congregations in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Kentucky, Indiana and North Carolina.  Among the 15 books he has written or edited are “The Nature of the Church:  Word of God Across the Ages,” “Appalachian Christianity,” “Baptists in America.”  He is a frequent lecturer on college and university campuses and his specialization in American and Southern studies makes him a frequent commentator on popular religion in the U.S.  Leonard holds a B.A. from Texas Wesleyan College, a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from Boston University.

Berea, the South’s first interracial and coeducational college, focuses on learning, labor, and service. Berea charges no tuition, admitting only academically promising students, primarily from Appalachia, who have limited economic resources. All students must work 10 hours weekly, earning money for books, room and board. Graduates from Berea go on to distinguish themselves and the College in many fields, living out the College’s motto “God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth.”