Alecia A. DeCoudreaux
Alecia A. DeCoudreaux
Introducing the 13th President of Mills College
Founded in 1852 as the Young Ladies' Seminary in Benicia, California, Mills College boasts a rich history as a leader in women's education. Mills was founded two years after California was admitted to statehood and the same year the city of Oakland was established. The University of California and Stanford had yet to exist, and miners, farmers, and merchants wanted to educate their daughters without sending them on the perilous journey to East Coast schools.
A group of residents decided on an innovative solution by establishing the Young Ladies' Seminary in their own town. For two and a half years, the institutions' trustees managed the school until 1855, when management passed to Oberlin graduate Mary Atkins. Under Atkins' tenure, the school gained a strong reputation. With a vision of equal education and opportunity for women, missionaries Cyrus and Susan Mills bought the Seminary in 1865 for $5,000, renamed it Mills College, and moved it in 1871 to its current 135-acre oasis. At the time, Oakland was a bustling metropolis of about 10,000.
Presidents of Mills College
Mary Atkins
1855–1865
Principal, Young Ladies' Seminary
2. Homer Baxter Sprague
1885–1887
4. Susan Tolman Mills
1890–1909
6. Aurelia Henry Reinhardt
1916–1943
8. C. Easton Rothwell
1959–1967
10. Barbara McClure White
1976–1980
12. Janet L. Holmgren
1991–2011
1. Cyrus Taggart Mills
1865–1884
3. Charles Carroll Stratton
1887–1890
5. Luella Clay Carson
1909–1914
7. Lynn Townsend White Jr.
1943–1958
9. Robert Joseph Wert
1967–1976
11. Mary S. Metz
1981–1990
13. Alecia A. DeCoudreaux
2011–
