Averett University named Tatia Daniels Granger as the university’s 17th president in a Monday news release. Granger will take over the position in August, and current president Thomas Powell will retire after 15 months at the Danville university.
Granger comes to Averett from the College of William & Mary’s Raymond A. Mason School of Business, where she has been an associate professor in organizational behavior since 2017. Previously, she was an adjunct professor with the department.
She will be only the second female president of the university, the first being Tiffany Franks, who retired in early 2025 after 17 years in the position. Granger will also be the first Black president in the school’s 167-year history, the release said.
Averett has had four different presidents in the last 18 months.
After Franks’ retirement, David Joyce became president in January 2025. He stepped down about three months later due to a medical diagnosis that his wife received. Powell was named president in April 2025 and has led the university since.
“With Granger’s arrival, Averett bids farewell to Powell, who helped the university navigate a period of financial recovery with forward progress,” the release said.
Powell came out of retirement last year “to serve as a transitional president” for Averett, it said. “Thanks to the positive strides made during the past year, Powell said the timing was right for him to step aside and for Averett to welcome its next president.”
Averett came under scrutiny in 2024 when Franks revealed that financial mismanagement had led to a budget deficit. The university instituted summer furlough days for employees, phased out several academic programs and put several properties up for sale, including the president’s house and the university’s equestrian center.
About a month into his tenure, Powell said that the school could recover from its financial crisis and that it would not close. He said he had a plan for financial recovery that included repaying the school’s vendors and endowment and could include further limiting academic and athletic options and selling more real estate.
At the beginning of this year, Averett sold its North Campus facility to the Danville Regional Foundation and the Danville-Pittsylvania Regional Industrial Facility Authority for just over $18 million.
The DRF and RIFA each own 50% of the North Campus property, which is Averett’s 70-acre athletics hub, with the private university leasing back and having primary use of the facilities.
Emma Maddux Kozlowski, chair of Averett’s board of trustees, said that Granger has “an impressive breadth of leadership experience, but also a warmth, authenticity and collaborative spirit,” in the release.
Granger has more than three decades of higher education and leadership experience in both administrative and faculty positions, the release said. She is a three-time graduate of the University of Virginia, receiving a doctoral degree in higher education and leadership, a master of education degree and a bachelor’s degree.
She has also been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University, the vice president of enrollment services at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, chief of staff to the chief financial officer at Duke University, director at James Madison University’s center for multicultural student services and the assistant dean for undergraduate admission at UVA.
Granger is originally from the Roanoke Valley and is moving to Danville with her husband, Earl.
“Averett’s history is one of resilience and reinvention, a legacy I intend to build on,” Granger said in the release. “Together with our faculty, staff, students, alumni and partners, we will strengthen Averett’s place as a university where ambition meets opportunity.”
Granger will begin as president Aug. 1 after Powell finishes his tenure July 31.
