Alumni

Please keep in touch. We love hearing from our alumni.

KEEP IN TOUCH WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

Send updates about news in your life, your current profession, and your contact information (email, mailing address), via email to Department Chair Bill Russell and stay connected with the department. If you have any photos or information you would like to contribute to the website or newsletter please forward those to Administrative Coordinator Callie Fleming Renner for submission to Folio, the Department of English's annual newsletter, which features stories on alumni and current students, new professors, notes on faculty and alumni and more.

Alumni Spotlight

picture of alum Michelle Cooper

Dr. Michelle Asha Cooper ’95 has been appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary Education by the Biden Administration, and will serve as acting Assistant Secretary.

About Michelle Asha Cooper '95

Prior to being appointed to this position, Dr. Cooper was the President of the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) and had been leading IHEP since 2008. Dr. Cooper has more than 20 years of experience in postsecondary education including key roles and leadership positions at the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance (U.S. Department of Education), Council for Independent Colleges, Association of American Colleges & Universities, and King’s College (Wilkes-Barre, PA).

While at the College, she majored in English and was in the Honors College.

Dr. Cooper joined Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. She earned her MPS from Cornell University in 1997 and her PhD from the University of Maryland in 2006.

Dr. Cooper served on the CofC Alumni Association Board from 2011-2015, and in May 2019, she was elected to the CofC Foundation Board. Dr. Cooper resides in Washington, D.C. In July 2020, she participated in an Inside Higher Education podcast, The Key, where she discussed how the pandemic has exposed and worsened equity gaps in higher education, particularly with Black, Latino, and lower-income students.