Dr. Cheryl L. Nixon

Dr. Cheryl Nixon is Berea College’s 10^th president and the first woman to serve in the role.  She is honored to serve the first racially integrated, co-educational college in the South, which expresses its commitment to educational opportunity by providing every single student with free tuition.

She most recently served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Fort Lewis College, a Native American-serving institution where she focused on creating an academic hub devoted to student success and launching a nursing program.  Earlier, she taught as professor of English at New Mexico State, Babson College, and the University of Massachusetts Boston, where she served as graduate program director, chair of the English department, and associate provost.

Throughout her career, she has created collaborative partnerships with institutions such as the University of Colorado Anschutz, San Juan College, Boston Public Library, and Boston Mayor’s Office. She emphasizes higher education’s need to create a culture of possibility for students and the community, inspiring all to create new ideas and move them into action. The author of numerous books and articles, her research focuses on the invention of the novel, comparing family plots to legal cases—and one of her favorite classes featured students working together to create rare book exhibits of early novels.