Tressie McMillan Cottom

Tressie McMillan Cottom (born October 9, 1976) is an American writer, sociologist, and professor. She is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science (SILS) and an affiliate of the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life (CITAP) at UNC-Chapel Hill. She is also an opinion columnist at ''The New York Times.''

She was formerly an associate professor of sociology at Virginia Commonwealth University and a faculty associate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. McMillan Cottom is the author of ''Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy'' and ''Thick: And Other Essays'', a co-editor of ''For-Profit Universities'' and ''Digital Sociologies'', an essayist whose work has appeared in ''The Atlantic'', ''Slate'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The Washington Post'', and co-host of the podcast ''Hear to Slay'' with author Roxane Gay. She is frequently quoted in print and television media as an academic expert on inequality and American higher education. In 2020, McMillan Cottom was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of her work "at the confluence of race, gender, education, and digital technology." Provided by Wikipedia