Recognized as a scholar, teacher, race-relations expert and leader in higher education, Tatum became the ninth president of Spelman College in 2002. She is also known as a promoter of racial identity development theory and as the author of the best-selling Can We Talk About Race? And Other Conversations in an Era of School Resegregation. She has been a faculty member at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Mount Holyoke College, where she also served as dean and acting president.
