MHC President Danielle Holley Works to Expand Access and Opportunity in Higher Ed

​Danielle Holley, Mount Holyoke College president and former ACE Fellow, is ready to build on a successful first year in the role and confront challenges head on

Last fall, Danielle Holley, president of Mount Holyoke College (MHC) and a 2021-22 ACE Fellow, entered her first year in the position focused on her one guiding principle: expanding access and opportunity.

"I have always been dedicated to opening doors for talented and deserving students in colleges and universities," she said. "And throughout my career, this has remained a constant. It's my passion and my purpose."

A year later, Holley has much to celebrate. She quickly established a deep connection with her new community, developed relationships with hundreds of MHC stakeholders, and worked with an array of subcommunities to develop a bold 10-year strategic plan aligned with these principles.

​Mount Holyoke President Danielle Holley

Additionally, she confronted challenges that colleges and universities faced nationwide head on.

Following the Supreme Court ruling striking down the use of race in admissions, she collaborated with the MHC admissions team on ways to recruit a diverse class of incoming students while observing the letter of the law.

"Our sector can continue to advocate for and admit classes full of students from all kinds of backgrounds-race and ethnicities, gender and gender identity, country of origin and economic circumstances," she said. "Higher ed can also continue to champion diversity, equity and inclusion work."

Additionally, in response to the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel and the war in Gaza, Holley and the MHC community emphasized the importance of listening to and understanding different views, adding programming and structures like the Intergroup Dialogue Center to support these efforts.

"Our strategy was to focus on our students: supporting them, educating them, and helping them talk and listen across different perspectives," she said.

And on top of all that, she squeezed into her schedule something of the utmost importance to her: teaching a class.

"MHC students are amazing!" she said.

From Law to Leadership

Holley's array of professional experiences prepared her to meet the current moment. A graduate of Harvard Law School, she began her career in law, which included clerking for a judge on the United States Court of Appeals' Fifth Circuit. Holley's enthusiasm for supporting students pushed her to pursue a career in academic leadership.

"I got into academic leadership work based on my passion for serving students and wanting to be able to have a positive impact on the institution, including faculty, staff, and alums," she said. "Over the last decade that I've been doing this work, my commitment to exceptional student outcomes and supporting groundbreaking faculty scholarship has sustained me."

Prior to joining Mount Holyoke, she served as dean and professor of law at Howard University School of Law for nine years and as associate dean for academic affairs and distinguished professor of education law at the University of South Carolina before that.

As part of her leadership journey, Holley was a member of the 2021-22 cohort of the ACE Fellows Program, among the longest-running and most effective leadership development programs in U.S. higher education.

Holley spent her fellowship at Brown University, an experience she cherished for many reasons, including the chance to learn from President Christina Paxson.

"Watching the way that she's been so successful and thoughtful - not just about Brown, but also about higher education in general - provided a lot of inspiration."

Under Paxson and then-Provost Richard Locke's mentorship, Holley completed a project focused on centers and institutes at Brown. She also shadowed them at many meetings and learned how they thought about aspects of finance, master campus planning, and academic planning, all while embedding equity into these programs and processes.

"I saw what was possible for a president to do to make a lasting and positive impact on a campus community and community at large," she said.

Based on her experiences, Holley encouraged current Fellows to take advantage of all the unique and impactful experiences offered to them and cultivate and leverage the network of current and former Fellows.

"There are so many opportunities that you normally wouldn't get to experience," she said, adding that she "cannot emphasize enough the power of being part of an incredible group of scholars and leaders whose advice and friendship will last a lifetime."

Moving Forward by Confronting Challenges

Holley's experience as a Fellow helped equip her with tools to push higher education forward. A staunch believer in the power of higher education, she believes that the sector needs to confront current challenges on campuses and society more broadly by using its means and expertise to champion conflict resolution.

"Higher education needs to be better at explaining the importance of, not debating, but talking across differences," she said. "We're still going to have hard and even tense conversations, but the focus needs to be on building bridges, not declaring someone a winner and someone a loser."

In the short-term, Holley is energized about the start of the new academic year. She's thrilled to reconnect with returning students and enjoyed assisting with first-year student move-in. She's also excited to be teaching a course again this spring.

"I love attending move-in and witnessing that moment when families realize that their child is now a college student," she said.

She's also ready to implement the new strategic plan, MHC Forward, as she and the community continue working toward expanding access and opportunity.

"A student's life changes through access to higher education, and we should graduate students who are committed to making positive change for their communities," she said. "When people are able to build their lives upon their intellectual commitments and curiosity, profound shifts happen."