Mount Holyoke College announces two new endowed chairs

Mount Holyoke College announced that it has received the largest gift from a living donor for the support of faculty and the humanities in its history. The $6 million gift by an anonymous donor will endow two new faculty chairs named for illustrious Mount Holyoke alums in the arts: the Debra Martin Chase ’77 Chair in Film Media Theater and the Suzan-Lori Parks ’85 Chair in Creative Writing.

“With this gift, Mount Holyoke College will continue to shape the future of bold and boundless leaders in the arts and humanities,” said President Danielle Holley. “I am so proud of these alums; they continue to break through barriers and make change for all.”

She continued, “Just as Debra Martin Chase and Suzan-Lori Parks were inspired by their Mount Holyoke predecessors such as Wendy Wasserstein ’71, the first female playwright to win the Tony Award on her own, they in turn will inspire and nurture generations of artists and scholars to come.”

The endowment was announced on Sunday, Nov. 17 before an audience of Mount Holyoke alums and students at a discussion following a performance of the Tony Award-winning musical “The Outsiders,” which is co-produced by Martin Chase and currently playing at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre in New York City.

“The establishment of these chairs is a celebration of the humanities and the arts at a key moment in American life,” said Lisa Sullivan, provost and dean of faculty at Mount Holyoke. “These positions honor the incredible legacy of the arts at the College and the vital achievements of Mount Holyoke’s Black alums.”

Martin Chase is the first Black female producer to sign a deal at a major studio and the first Black woman to produce a film that grossed over $100 million. To date, her films have made over $500 million at the box office. She is a three-time Tony Award winner as a producer for the musicals “The Outsiders” and “A Strange Loop” and the Broadway revival of “Topdog/Underdog.” Her company, Martin Chase Productions, has a multi-year deal with Universal Television and previously worked with The Walt Disney Company. A former Board of Trustees member at Mount Holyoke College, Martin Chase is currently the executive producer for “The Equalizer” TV series for Universal Television and CBS and has produced the films “The Princess Diaries,” “Harriet,” “True Spirit” and “Being Mary Tyler Moore.”

Martin Chase said of her time at Mount Holyoke College, “What Mount Holyoke gave me was that period of intellectual intensity. I didn’t have to stand down for anybody. At Mount Holyoke, we are all fierce. We are strong.”

Parks is a 2001 MacArthur Genius Grant recipient and the first Black woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, taking the award in 2002 for her play “Topdog/Underdog.” In 2015 her play “Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3” was a Pulitzer finalist. In 2017 she won the PEN America/Laura Pels “Master American Dramatist” Award, and in 2018 she received the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. In 2023, “Topdog/Underdog” won a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play. Parks has also written for the screen and is the author of the 2003 book “Getting Mother’s Body: A Novel.”

At a Launching Leadership discussion in 2022 with alums and students of Mount Holyoke College, Parks said, “Mount Holyoke helped me hear myself. I was sitting in the Rockies [a residence hall] and that was the first time . . . I heard the voices in my soul.”

The announcement of the named chairs and the expansion of the faculty comes at an exciting time for Mount Holyoke College; it has launched the MHC Forward Strategic Plan to map an audacious vision for the College’s next decade and beyond. This plan centers on the innovative, rigorous educational opportunities that Mount Holyoke values and champions and outlines a roadmap to leverage resources to further develop leaders who make lasting, positive change in today’s increasingly global world.