Holley Tankersley, associate dean of the Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts at Coastal Carolina University, completed the 2016 HERS Bryn Mawr Summer Institute held July 11-23.

Tankersley, an associate professor in CCU's Department of Politics, joined 63 women leaders across the United States as part of the Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) Institute.

For more than 40 years, HERS has prepared women faculty and administrators for leadership roles in higher education. At one of the three HERS Institutes - HERS Denver, HERS Bryn Mawr and HERS Wellesley - participants gain the knowledge and skills needed to lead change on their campuses and positively affect higher education. The participants selected for this year's HERS Bryn Mawr cohort represent institutions across the U.S.

Institute sessions included "Managing and Leading Change: Your Role in Re-inventing Higher Education," "Negotiation Strategies, Leaning into Turbulent Times," "Diversity and Inclusion" and "Reframing: Work-Life to Living Well."

"There are not adequate words to express how important the HERS experience was for me," said Tankersley. "In addition to fine-tuning my knowledge of nuts-and-bolts institutional processes, I learned a tremendous amount about change management and understanding my own approach to leadership. Most importantly, I met 63 impressive, like-minded women leaders who will be a great resource for me and for CCU in the years to come."

Tankersley has been serving at CCU since 2006. She was previously chair of the politics department. Her recent achievements include a forthcoming article on women state Supreme Court chief justices. She is also the two-time recipient of the University Professor of the Year award and was named University Adviser of the Year in 2014-2015. Her participation in the HERS Bryn Mawr Summer Institute was sponsored by President David A. DeCenzo, Provost J. Ralph Byington and Humanities Dean Daniel J. Ennis.

Tankersley earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Birmingham Southern College. She earned a master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. in political science and public policy from the University of Georgia.