New President Yolanda Page plans to boost Stillman College's visibility in the community
Yolanda Page, Stillman College's new president, plans to carry the torch of her predecessor, Cynthia Warrick, while also advancing the higher education institution to the next level.
Page became Stillman's eighth president on July 1, after Warrick's retirement. Warrick, Stillman's first female president, led the historically Black college in Tuscaloosa for five years.
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"I certainly see it as advancing the work that she's done," Page said Friday when discussing her role at Stillman with local media outlets. "I know that she's done a yeoman's job of moving the institution forward.
"I'm going to focus on what Stillman looks like in its second half. And what I mean by that is in 2026, we'll be marking or celebrating our sesquicentennial, our 150th (year). So I want to focus on Stillman in the next 150 years," she said.
Stillman College was founded by the Presbyterian Church in Tuscaloosa and opened for its first classes in 1876.
Page, a Shreveport, Louisiana, native has over 30 years of experience in higher education. Before coming to Stillman, Page served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Savannah State University in Georgia.
Page’s administrative experience spans public and private institutions. Before her appointment at Savannah State University in Georgia, she was vice president of academic affairs at Dillard University, a private HBCU in New Orleans that consistently ranks among the top 15 HBCUs in the nation.
She earned a bachelor of arts degree in English with a minor in business management from Dillard University and a master of arts and a doctor of philosophy degrees in American and African-American literature from Louisiana State University.
Page said she has spent her first three weeks at Stillman getting acquainted with faculty, staff and students, as well as meeting members of the Tuscaloosa community.
"It's been a wonderful past three weeks," Page said. "I had an opportunity to meet with our state senator, Bobby Singleton of Greensboro). He had his camp (the Black Belt Scholars Summer STEM Camp) here.
"And I had an opportunity to meet with those (middle and high school) students and to interact with them, hopefully, to convince some of them that Stillman will be the place for them to matriculate once they get to that point," she said.
The Stillman president said she has enjoyed exploring the city of Tuscaloosa and is excited to call the Druid City her new home.
"I would say that I'm a Southern girl and so that really is attractive to me. So I think that we'll be just fine here in Tuscaloosa. And we're actually looking forward to definitely becoming a part of the Tuscaloosa family," Page said.
Building on the improvements made during Warrick's tenure and moving Stillman forward are her main challenges, she said.
During her tenure at Stillman, Page said she plans to focus on three areas: relationships, resources and reputation.
Page said she also plans to continue building on Stillman College's visibility in the community.
"I deeply believe in the idea that the institution definitely has to serve the community in which it is located. So you're going to find that Stillman College is definitely going to be a part of the Tuscaloosa community," she said.
When she's not working, Page said she enjoys spending time with family. She said she looks forward using her free time to become a part of the community and test out Tuscaloosa's restaurant scene.
Reach Jasmine Hollie at JHollie@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: President Yolanda Page plans to build on Stillman College's momentum
