Dr. Johnnetta Betsch Cole made history in 1987, when she became the first African-American woman to serve as President of Spelman College. Ever since it was founded, Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia has been the nation's foremost institution of higher education specifically intended for African American women. Yet, for the first century of Spelman's existence, no African American woman had ever served as president of the college. Spelman prospered under Dr. Cole's leadership. In 1992, the magazine U.S. News and World Report, gave Spelman a coveted number one rating in its annual survey of "Best College Buys." The same issue ranked Spelman the number one regional liberal arts college in the South. Four years later, Money magazine listed Spelman as the number one historically black college, the number one women's college and the number seven college of any kind in the United States. Long before taking charge at Spelman, Dr. Cole had already distinguished herself as an anthropologist, author, university professor and administrator, with a special interest in Afro-American, Latin American and Caribbean Studies. Dr. Cole has served on the boards of major corporations, chaired the Board of Trustees of the United Way and assisted President William J. Clinton in the formation of his administration. After a decade as President of Spelman, Dr. Cole served as President of the nation's other historically black college for women, Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. A longtime advisor to the Smithsonian Institution, in 2009 she was selected to serve as Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art. This podcast was recorded at the Academy of Achievement's 1996 Summit in Sun Valley, Idaho.