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Inauguration

Investiture Ceremony for Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH.

Formally Installing the 11th President
of Spelman College

Saturday, April 28, 2023, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Martin Luther King, Jr., International Chapel
830 Westview Drive SW, Atlanta, GA 30314

View the Investiture Ceremony

 



Helene D. Gayle, MD, MPH., the 11th president of Spelman College

Helene Gayle PortraitHelene D. Gayle, M.D., MPH, began serving as the 11th president of Spelman College on July 1, 2022. Dr. Gayle previously served as president and CEO of The Chicago Community Trust, one of the nation’s oldest and largest community foundations, from October 2017 to June 2022. Under her leadership, the Trust adopted a new strategic focus on closing the racial and ethnic wealth gap in the Chicago region.

For almost a decade, Dr. Gayle was president and CEO of CARE, a leading international humanitarian organization. A pediatrician and public health physician with expertise in economic development, humanitarian, and health issues, she spent 20 years with the Centers for Disease Control, working primarily on HIV/AIDS. She led the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s programs on HIV/AIDS and other global health issues.

Dr. Gayle serves on public company and nonprofit boards, including The Coca-Cola Company, Organon, Palo Alto Networks, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Brookings Institution, Center for Strategic and International Studies, New America and the ONE Campaign. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Medicine, Council on Foreign Relations, American Public Health Association, National Medical Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics.

She was awarded the Chicago Mayor’s Medal of Honor for her work on COVID relief and recovery for the city. Dr. Gayle has been named as one of Forbes’ “100 Most Powerful Women” and a “Top 10 Black Higher Education CEO To Watch in 2023”, and one of NonProfit Times’ "Power and Influence Top 50." She has also authored numerous articles on global and domestic public health issues, poverty alleviation, gender equality, and wealth inequity.

Dr. Gayle is from Buffalo, N.Y. She earned a B.A. in psychology at Barnard College, an M.D. at the University of Pennsylvania, and an M.P.H. at Johns Hopkins University. She is a tenured Full Professor in the Department of Environmental and Health Sciences at Spelman College and has received 18 honorary degrees. She also holds faculty appointments at the University of Washington and Emory University.

Dr. Gayle is married to Stephen Keith, M.D., the First Gentleman of Spelman College and a proud Spelman dad.

Lift Every Voice and Sing

Lift ev’ry voice and sing,
till earth and heaven ring,
ring with the harmonies of liberty.
Let our rejoicing rise
high as the list’ning skies,
let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the
dark past has taught us.
Sing a song full of the hope that the
present has brought us.
Facing the rising sun
of our new day begun,
let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,
bitter the chast’ning rod,
felt in the days
when hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat,
have not our weary feet
come to the place
for which our people sighed?
We have come over a way
that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path
thro’ the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past,
till now we stand at last
where the bright gleam
of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
thou who hast brought us
thus far on the way,
thou who hast by thy might
led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places,
our God, where we met thee;
lest our hearts, drunk with the
wine of the world, we forget thee;
shadowed beneath thy hand,
may we forever stand,
true to our God,
true to our native land.