Holley Tankersley, associate professor and chair of the Department of Politics and Geography at Coastal Carolina University, has been selected to participate in a prestigious leadership program at Bryn Mawr College this summer.

Tankersley was among 70 women from across the country chosen to attend the Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) Bryn Mawr Summer Institute in Philadelphia, an intensive, two-week residential program at which participants gain the knowledge, skills and perspectives needed for advancing as leaders across all institutional types.

"I am excited about the opportunity to work with other women in higher education who are seeking to develop leadership skills that will benefit their campuses," says Tankersley. "It is my belief that colleges and universities exist to create public value: to enrich their communities and the lives of their students, faculty, staff and alumni. The HERS Institute will help me to develop strategies and tools necessary to do my small part in helping CCU to grow that kind of value."

Tankersley has been a member of the CCU faculty since 2006. During the 2011-2012 academic year, she served as associate dean of the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts. Her areas of expertise are public policy, social policy, state politics and policy, the U.S. presidency and high-impact learning in liberal arts education.

Tankersley earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1999 from Birmingham Southern College and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She earned a master's degree in public policy in 2002 from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. in political science and public policy in 2006 from the University of Georgia. Her work has been published in many academic journals, and she has presented at numerous conferences in her field.

She was named Coastal Carolina University's Distinguished Professor of the Year in 2009 and 2013. In 2008, she received the Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching.

Established in 1976 to improve the opportunities and status of academic women, and to assist institutions in compliance with the requirements of Title IX, the HERS Bryn Mawr Summer Institute has prepared more than 2,500 women faculty and administrators for leadership roles in higher education.