As the first Black woman president of Mills College, Alecia DeCoudreaux leads an undergraduate program dedicated solely to women, one of fewer than 60 such U.S. institutions left in this country. Mills’ more than 1,500 students include 42 percent ethnic minorities among undergraduates and 39 percent among graduate students, which include men.
A graduate of Wellesley College and Indiana University’s law school, DeCoudreaux is also a Wellesley trustee and former board chairwoman. Prior to joining Mills, she had spent 30 years at Eli Lilly and Co. in various executive leadership positions including vice president and general counsel.
DeCoudreaux, who assumed the presidency last July, recently spoke with Diverse. She and the Mills trustees have publicly declared they have no plans to make the undergraduate program coeducational.
DI: You have stated you wouldn’t have considered this presidency if the trustees wanted to admit male undergraduates. Why are you so committed to preserving women’s education?
AD: As long as there are disparities, we need women’s colleges. Women make up only 2.4 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs and 17 percent of Congress. At a women’s college, students find their voices without having to engage in the competitions for learning, for support and for opportunity that are all too common at coed schools.
The student leaders at Mills are all women. And all students are expected every day to do well. We don’t simply tell them they will do well.
DI: When your predecessor, Dr. Janet Holmgren, became Mills president in 1991, there were still about 300 women’s colleges. Are you worried that your school is part of an endangered species?
