Program Officer and Director, MMUF

Lydia L. English directs the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program (MMUF)– a program to reduce, over time, the serious underrepresentation on faculties of individuals from certain minority groups, as well as to address the attendant educational consequences of these disparities. MMUF is the centerpiece of the Mellon Foundation's efforts to increase the number of highly qualified minority candidates, as well as students with a demonstrated commitment to the goals of MMUF, enrolled in PhD programs in core fields in the arts and sciences. Students from thirty-four colleges and universities, and the thirty-nine member institutions of the United Negro College Fund (UNCF) participate in MMUF. Currently there are 400 undergraduates in the pipeline.  Since 1988 over 2500 students have been selected as fellows.  Approximately 170 fellows have received their PhD's with another 500 currently at various stages in PhD programs.

Ms. English graduated from Brown University magna cum laude with honors in Anthropology, and earned her Ph.D. from Yale University in social/cultural Anthropology.  She conducted her fieldwork on gender relationships within the newly independent political economy of Dominica, West Indies.

Ms. English taught African American Studies and Anthropology at Brown University. She was also Associate Dean of the College, and is well known for her work on mentoring, diversity and multicultural issues. Ms. English’s long-time interest and work has been on academic excellence and issues of access to higher education.  Her mission and passion is to increase the diversity of faculties at colleges and universities throughout the country.

In a previous career, Ms. English worked for many years in Chicago and the Caribbean as an international banker. Ms. English has traveled extensively throughout the United States, the Caribbean, and West and South Africa.