Julianne Malveau named president of Bennett

Julianne Malveaux has been named president of Bennett College, the school announced today at a news conference.

Malveaux, an economist, author and commentator, will succeed Johnnetta Cole, who announced in 2006 that she plans to step down at the end of this academic year. Malveaux will begin her appointment June 1.

Malveaux appears regularly on CNN and BET. She has also hosted talk radio programs in Washington, San Francisco and New York. As a writer and syndicated columnist, her work appears regularly in USA Today, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Ms. Magazine, Essence and the Progressive.

Malveaux serves on the boards of the Economic Policy Institute, Women Building for the Future - Future PAC, The Recreation Wish List Committee of Washington and the Liberian Education Trust.

A native San Franciscan, Malveaux received her bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from Boston College, and a Ph.D in economics from MIT.

"This institution has played a pivotal role in civil rights history, and Bennett Belles are women who have thoroughly inspired me," Malveaux said in remarks prepared before the news conference. "I have been blessed to develop a national platform as an activist and advocate for economic justice, access to education and the rights of African American women, and it is from this platform that I am delighted to begin my time as Bennett College president."

The college announced in February that it had whittled a pool of 71 candidates down to three unnamed finalists.

Bennett College for Women was founded in 1873 as a coeducational institution and in 1926 was reorganized as a college for women.