Administrative Staff

Though Davidson College did not officially implement full coeducation until 1972, women had long worked for the institution as staff, teachers and tutors, and faculty. This page highlights the history of female-identifying administrative and support staff at Davidson College using select resources from the College Archives.

 

For more information about faculty and teaching, consult our Faculty page. For information about auxiliary services staff, consult our Laundry section and Dining Staff page.  

 

 

In July 1858, Ann Brown became the first woman hired by and paid by the college as the manager of Steward's Hall.  As recorded in the Davidson College Board of Trustees minutes below, Brown was responsible for the college's dining hall and boarding facility.

 

 

The early twentieth century marked a watershed moment in the history of female employees at Davidson. Out of the three non-teaching administrative staff on campus, two were women: Cornelia Shaw and Alice Robson.

 

In 1907, Cornelia Shaw (1869-1937) joined the staff of Davidson College as the first full-time  female employee, the first librarian (1907-1936), and the first college registrar. Shaw's primary responsibility was to run the college library full-time. Preceding her hire, faculty and students looked after the library in their "spare time." Arriving at Davidson at age 40 after serving as the editor of the Charlotte-based newspaper, Presbyterian Standard, Shaw took "unquestioned control" over the operations of the library.

 

Alice Robson, a doctor's widow who moved to Davidson in 1908 to "educate her sons," served as the college nurse from 1908 until her retirement in 1937. On page 127 of his autobiographical text, Memories of Davidson College, then-President Dr. Walter Lingle said of Robson: "Dr. MacConnell and Mrs. Alice Robson, the nurse, deserve some extra stars in their crown for the fine work they did in that old building."

 

Orrie Steele would join these women on the staff as the president's secretary in 1916. Steele worked with several college presidents until her retirement in 1948.

 

 

 

The female staff of Davidson College increased in 1922 when Nancy T. Smith was hired to supervise the dormitories. This move made Davidson one of the first men's colleges in the southern United States to have a woman serving as dormitory supervisor.

 

 

The numbers of early female staff members after Shaw, Robson, and Steele continued to rise. Around 1955, Professor E.A. Beaty dubbed the female members of the administrative staff the "Chambermaids" as many of the women's offices were in the Chambers Building.

 

The group began as a social organization, eventually evolving into the Office Support Staff group in the 1980s as staff diversified in terms of gender, departments served, and office locations. The group sponsored luncheons and professional development workshops, while also recognizing and celebrating the major life events of its members and staff across campus. In this way, the Office Support Staff group fostered a sense of community amongst the predominantly female administrative staff of the college. The organization ceased meeting formally in 2009.

 

In 1983, Paula Moore Miller was hired as the first Black woman to serve as both Assistant Dean of Students and Assistant Dean of Admissions.

 

In 1985, Miller dropped the title of Assistant Dean of Admissions and was able to focus entirely on student life engagement.  As Assistant Dean of Students, Miller served on the Davidson College Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Concerns, coordinated a symposium about "Black concerns in higher education," and provided support to the Black Student Coalition. Miller also served on the alumnae board of Queens College and on the boards of various professional committees. You can read more about her achievements in the press release below.

 

Shortly after, in 1985, Davidson College hired Reverend Brenda Tapia as Assistant Chaplain. Reverend Tapia was the first woman to serve as Assistant Chaplain.

 

Reverend Tapia was born at Lawrence Hospital in Mooresville in 1949, though her family lived in Davidson, NC. Her father, James Howard, worked as a janitor and an assistant in the chemistry labs at Davidson College for decades. Tapia left to attend Howard University in 1967 where she earned a degree in psychology. She later returned to Davidson, NC and became an ordained Presbyterian minister. In this capacity, she was hired as an assistant chaplain at Davidson College as a result of Project 87, a movement led by the Black Student Coalition that called for more equitable representation of Black people on the faculty and staff, better services and representation for Black students, and a more robust Black Studies curriculum.

 

A few short years later, Reverend Tapia launched the beloved Love of Learning Program. 

 

The Love of Learning Program ran between 1987 and 2005, serving hundreds of predominantly-Black youth in the local area. The program emphasized the academic, spiritual, and physical components of a child's education in its 4-week residential summer sessions hosted on Davidson's campus. Participants attended summer sessions during all 4 of their high school years, in addition to participating in monthly check-ins during the school year. Reverend Tapia drew inspiration from the support system she experienced as a child. In an oral history interview with Clarence Fox on January 5, 2017, Tapia explained:

 

That was one thing I carried into Love of Learning, that was the most crucial element that helped our program be successful. Black teachers not only lived in your neighborhood...but they developed relationships with you, they became surrogate parents. 

 

When Reverend Tapia passed in 2020, generations of Love of Learning students and Davidson College graduates shared their memories and affection for her, highlighting the significance of her mentorship and leadership. Today, The Brenda Tapia CDF (Children’s Defense Fund) Freedom Schools®, housed at the Ada Jenkins Center, continues this legacy.

 

Former Health Educator Georgia Ringle taught sex education courses with the Love of Learning Program as part of her role as Davidson College's first Health Educator. Arriving at Davidson in 1988, Ringle created the health educator program at Davidson with the support of the Dean of Students Office and The Duke Endowment.

 

Ringle served as Davidson's Health Educator for 33 years before retiring in 2021.  In the April 23, 2022 edition of the Davidsonian, student Michaela Gibbons (Davidson College Class of 2022) reflected on Ringle's impact and how the resources and safe space she provided were sorely missed as campus worked to fill her position:

 

Georgia Ringle was "a safe person to talk to, and she provided the student body with the support that we needed...Georgia pushed to destigmatize STD and STI testing, and since she's been gone, the availability of testing has definitely decreased."

 

 

 

Nancy Cable, originally hired in 1992 as the first female director of Admission and Financial Aid, became one of the first women vice presidents at the college. Her promotion followed Kristin Hills Bradbury's (Davidson College Class of 1985) appointment as Vice President of College Relations in December 2000.

 

Still other women have joined the administrative staff at Davidson. Karen Goldstein joined the college as the Vice President for Business and Finance in 2004, and Eileen Keeley (Davidson College Class of 1986) took over as the Vice President for College Relations in 2006. Sarah Phillips (Davidson College Class of 2001) was later appointed Vice President and General Counsel in 2009. 

 

In 2013, Dr. Wendy Raymond was hired as the first female-identifying Vice President of Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty.

 

Raymond, a molecular biologist, came to Davidson after serving as the Associate Dean of Institutional Diversity at Williams College and as a member of the Committee on Equal Opportunities in Science and Engineering (CEOSE). During her six year tenure at Davidson College, Raymond pursued initiatives to diversify both the faculty and the college's curriculum. Raymond left the college in 2019 to become the sixteenth President of Haverford College. Read more of Dean Raymond's thoughts in the August 28, 2013 edition of the Davidsonian article announcing the start of her tenure, below.

 

Just a few years later, Antoinette (Ann) McCorvey was hired as Davidson's Chief Financial Officer. McCorvey is the first Black woman to hold this reimagined position.

 

According to the January 7, 2019 Davidson News article written by Mark Johnson about McCorvey's appointment, she obtained her MBA from the University of West Florida and had decades of experience leading financial planning for several major companies. According to the article, McCorvey "was a high school math whiz interested in teaching when a guidance counselor introduced her to other career paths for the computationally inclined." She credits much of her business success to watching and learning from her entrepreneurial father. McCorvey officially began her Davidson career in February 2019.

 

 

In 2011, Davidson College hired Dr. Carol Quillen as full Professor of History and as the first female-identifying president of Davidson College.

 

Quillen began her tenure as Davidson's first woman president in 2011 after serving in various administrative roles at Rice University. In her May 2011 speech accepting the position, Quillen stated:

 

“I come to you, I know, from outside the Davidson family. I have much to learn, and it would be beyond presumptuous—as well as unwise—for me,” she said, “to talk too long, when what I most want and need to do is listen.”

 

Quillen went on to lead several major building and renovation projects, including the opening of the Craig E. Wall, Jr. Academic Center, the refurbishment of the Jay Hurt Hub, and giving the green light to begin construction of a new athletics facility. As president, Quillen also led Davidson College's move to the Atlantic 10 athletics conference and championed several fundraising initiatives that pushed the College's endowment to over $1 billion as of 2023. 

 

In addition to this work, Quillen announced the Davidson College Commission on Race and Slavery in 2017. As stated on the Commission on Race and Slavery website:

 

"The Commission guided the development and launch of research projects and additional teaching and learning initiatives through which the Davidson community can investigate and acknowledge the college's history with slavery and race as well as its historical relationships with African American communities."

 

After months of study, Quillen publicly apologized for Davidson College's involvement in the institution of slavery. She then led efforts to expand the Africana Studies program at Davidson, supported community-centered engagement through several campus-wide grants, invited artist teams to campus to design A Memorial to the Enslaved and Exploited, and encouraged faculty, staff, and students to interrogate the ways racism manifests in our present time. All of this work continued as Quillen led the college through a historic shift to online learning in March 2020 in the face of a global emergency--the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

After a decade of service, President Quillen announced her intent to step down from her position as college president in August 2021.

 

Bibliography:

• “A Memorial to the Enslaved and Exploited.” Race, Slavery, and Reconciliation. Davidson College. https://www.davidson.edu/race-slavery-and-reconciliation/memorial-enslaved-and-exploited. c2023. Accessed 05 June 2024.
• Beaty, Mary D. “A History of Davidson College.” Briarpatch Press, 1988, p. 208-210, p. 309.
• Blodgett, Jan. “Women of Davidson.” Around the D, https://davidsonarchivesandspecialcollections.org/aroundthed/women-at-davidson/. 01 June 2011. Accessed 04 June 2024.
• Chuckray, Laura. “Wendy Raymond Assumes VPAA Position.” Davidsonian. 28 August 2013: p. 1.
• “Commission on Race and Slavery.” Race, Slavery, and Reconciliation. Davidson College. https://www.davidson.edu/race-slavery-and-reconciliation/commission-race-and-slavery. Accessed 05 June 2024.
• “Davidson College Apologizes for Role in Perpetuating Slavery and Systemic Racism.” Commission on Race and Slavery. Davidson College. https://www.davidson.edu/race-slavery-and-reconciliation/commission-race-and-slavery/apology-role-perpetuating-slavery-systemic-racism. c2021. Accessed 05 June 2024.
• Gibbons, Michaela. “Search for New Health Educator.” Davidsonian. 13 April 2022: p.1.
• Interview with Brenda Tapia, 2017 January 05. OHI-0233. RG19/02, Davidson Stories: Community-Based oral history and interview collection. Davidson College Archives & Special Collections, Davidson, NC. 
• Johnson, Mark. “College Appoints Ann McCorvey as Chief Financial Officer.” Davidson News. 07 January 2019. https://www.davidson.edu/news/2019/01/07/college-appoints-ann-mccorvey-chief-financial-officer. 
• Lingle, Walter Lee. “Memories of Davidson College.” John Knox Press, 1947.
• Miller, Paula Moore, Press Release, 17 July 1985. 1985. RG5/7.03a, College Communications. Davidson College Archives & Special Collections, Davidson, NC. 
• Minutes of the Meetings of the Board of Trustees of Davidson College Vol. 1. RG1/1, Board of Trustees, Minutes, 1837-. 16 July 1858. Davidson College Archives & Special Collections, Davidson, NC. 
• Statement of Purpose and Memos, 1975. 1975. RG11/3, Office Support Staff. Davidson College Archives & Special Collections, Davidson, NC. 
• Strickland, Danielle. “$10M Commitment Names Fieldhouse, Honors President Quillen’s Leadership.” Davidson News. 06 April 2022. https://www.davidson.edu/news/2022/04/06/10m-commitment-names-fieldhouse-honors-president-quillens-leadership. 
• Strickland, Danielle. “Beloved Mentor’s Legacy Honored Through New Name for Freedom Schools.” 20 June 2023. Davidson College News. https://www.davidson.edu/news/2023/06/20/beloved-mentors-legacy-honored-through-new-name-freedom-schools. 
• Washburn, Mark. “Risk and Reward: President Carol Quillen’s 11 Years of Bold Achievement.” Davidson News. 14 June 2022. https://www.davidson.edu/news/2022/06/14/risk-and-reward-president-carol-quillens-11-years-bold-achievement. 
• Yarboro, Eleanor. “William Holt Terry, 1990-1999.” Davidson Encyclopedia. 06 October 2015. https://digitalprojects.davidson.edu/omeka/s/college-archives-davidson-encyclopedia/page/terry-william-holt-1990-1999.