ATLANTA, April 09, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Spelman College today announced the public launch of "Spelman Forward," a landmark $500 million comprehensive campaign aimed at recalibrating the College’s financial and academic models to build a more future ready Spelman. Twice the size of its previous fundraising effort, the campaign positions the nation’s top producer of Black women in STEM to lead through a period of profound technological and economic shifts.
In a bold strategic move, the College has designated $325 million (65 percent of the campaign goal) to scholarships and financial aid. This represents a significant increase from the 30 percent allocated in the previous Spelman Ascends campaign and underscores a commitment to eliminating systemic debt and creating paths to generational wealth for its students.
"Spelman was founded in 1881 during a period of national reconstruction by those who believed education was a tool for liberation," said Rosalind 'Roz' Brewer, Interim President and Chair Emerita. "Today, we face a 'New Reconstruction' shaped by AI, economic volatility, and shifting workforce demands. We are acting with the same clarity our founders possessed: by investing first and foremost in the talented women who will architect a more equitable technological future".
The campaign is built upon four strategic pillars:
- Access and Affordability ($325M): Ensuring financial barriers do not determine enrollment and providing the foundation for student financial independence.
- Academic Transformation ($100M): Modernizing the liberal arts foundation by integrating AI literacy, computational reasoning, and ethical leadership across the curriculum.
- Technological Infrastructure ($45M): Modernizing digital classrooms and operational systems, including new ERP and CRM platforms, to support institutional resilience.
- Graduate Readiness ($30M): Enhancing counseling and physical spaces to support whole-student flourishing and protecting the rigor of a Spelman education.
"Our goal is not to become a 'different' Spelman, but a more modernized one that preserves the immersive, mentored experience that makes us the top-ranked HBCU," said Lovette Russell, Chair of the Spelman Board of Trustees.
The "Spelman Forward" vision emphasizes that while the world changes, Spelman’s mission remains constant yet scaled for the 21st century. By investing in our academy in various ways with a focus on interdisciplinary problem-solving, the College is ensuring its graduates remain independent thought leaders equipped to solve the world’s most intractable problems.
About Spelman College
Founded in 1881, Spelman College is a leading liberal arts college widely recognized as the global leader in the education of women of African descent. Located in Atlanta, the College’s picturesque campus is home to 2,300 students. Spelman is the country's leading producer of Black women who complete Ph.D.s in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The College’s status is confirmed by the U.S. News & World Report, which ranked Spelman No. 39 among all liberal arts colleges, No. 19 for undergraduate teaching, No. 2 for social mobility among liberal arts colleges, and No. 1 for the 17th year among historically Black colleges and universities. Recent initiatives include a designation by the Department of Defense as a Center of Excellence for Minority Women in STEM, a Gender and Sexuality Studies Institute, the first endowed queer studies chair at an HBCU and a program to increase the number of Black women Ph.D.s in economics. New majors and minors have been added, including documentary filmmaking and photography, data science, refugee studies and gaming. Collaborations have been also established with MIT’s Media Lab, the Broad Institute and the Army Research Lab for artificial intelligence and machine learning, among others.
Outstanding alumnae include Children’s Defense Fund founder Marian Wright Edelman, former Walgreens Boots Alliance CEO Rosalind Brewer, political leader Stacey Abrams, Federal Reserve Governor Lisa D. Cook, former Acting Surgeon General and Spelman’s first alumna president Audrey Forbes Manley, Harvard University professor and former Dean Evelynn Hammonds, actress and producer Latanya Richardson Jackson, global bioinformatics geneticist Janina Jeff and authors Pearl Cleage and Tayari Jones.
To learn more, please visit spelman.edu and @spelmancollege on social media.
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Denise Ward Spelman College publicrelations@spelman.edu