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Dr. Dorothy Yancy: the CIAA's president of the board: Johnson C. Smith's president coordinates policy-making body - Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association

Ebony, Feb, 2003 by Marsha Gilbert

DR. Dorothy Yvonne Cowser Yancy is the first female president of her alma mater, Johnson C. Smith University, and the first female president of the 12-member Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association board (CIAA). She is also the No. 1 cheerleader for the CIAA tournament, which celebrates not only athletics but also education and community.

"You haven't seen anything until you come to a CIAA tournament," Dr. Yancy says of the week of athletic, educational and social events that include a step-show and job fair. "It's lots of fun. It's great basketball. It's like a real family reunion. It's the best time you could have." Last year, all Dr. Yancy needed were pom-poms when she danced on the press table after Johnson C. Smith won the basketball tournament in overtime.

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The historian and educator was the only female member of the CIAA board in 1994 when she became president of Johnson C. Smith University, one of the 12 schools in the conference. She was elected secretary then later elected as vice president and served on the constitution and personnel committees of the association. Her two-year term ends this year.

As president of the CIAA board, Dr. Yancy helps set policy for the oldest African-American collegiate conference, which is celebrating its 91st anniversary. She calls board meetings twice a year and oversees the various committees that meet throughout the year. Additionally, she has concentrated on broadening the appeal of the CIAA tournament with the help of a marketing firm that targeted a larger audience and more young people.

As president of the CIAA board, Dr. Yancy says there are some elements that remind her of the time when she was a varsity basketball player in high school. "Working with the board is teamwork, and I'm just one of the players," she says. "In order for the CIAA to work, we all have to work together to reap the benefits."

Dr. Yancy also works to improve academic life as president of Johnson C. Smith. She spearheaded an academic program at the university requiring each student to take computer science classes and to have a laptop computer. Thanks to her efforts, the university received servers and hardware, and the faculty received laptop computers through the United Negro College Fund Technology Initiative. IBM leases laptop computers to students, who pay lease fees with their tuition. MicroSoft contributed software and reimburses student workers for repairing the computers. Johnson C. Smith is the only historically Black institution in the IBM ThinkPad program.

Education has always been important to Yancy, whose parents dropped out of school, but made sure their four children, who lived and worked on the family-owned farm in Cherokee County, Ala., earned degrees.

Dr. Yancy originally planned to be a research chemist when she went to college. "But when I went to sleep in chemistry class my first week, I knew it wasn't my calling," she says with a laugh.

So she switched to math and then social science. "I decided I didn't know very much about anything," she says. "So I majored in history so I would think I knew something about something."

History created a whole new world view for her. "It made me stop and think and use analytical skills," Dr. Yancy says.

Dr. Yancy earned a bachelor of arts in history and the social sciences at Johnson C. Smith and received her master's in history from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She later earned a Ph.D. in political science from Atlanta University. Additionally, she has studied at a variety of institutions, including the University of Singapore and Harvard University.

Despite her enviable educational achievements, she is still a farmer at heart. Dr. Yancy now owns the family farm that was once owned by her great-great-grandfather in Alabama, and she leases it to her brother.

But she ranks being a good mother highest on her list of accomplishments. "I raised a fairly decent daughter," says Dr. Yancy, whose 25-year marriage ended 10 years ago. "Being a parent is sort of rocket science. There are so many things that impact you while trying to instill values in raising children."

When Dr. Yancy started working on her Ph.D., her daughter and namesake, Yvonne Cowser Yancy, was 2 years old, and the youngster was determined to emulate her mother. "When I was writing my dissertation, she thought she was writing hers," the educator says. Yvonne graduated from kindergarten the same weekend her mom earned her Ph.D., and they both wore their robes to Dr. Yancy's commencement ceremony.

All of these experiences and commitments are reflected in Dr. Yancy's leadership of Johnson C. Smith and the CIAA.

Dr. Dorothy Yancy: the CIAA's president of the board: Johnson C. Smith's president coordinates policy-making body - Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association

Ebony, Feb, 2003 by Marsha Gilbert

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