Lettie Pate Whitehead Scholarship

The Lettie Pate Whitehead Scholars program annually provides scholarship support to deserving female Christian students in the South with financial need and an interest in the health professions. At Emory, Lettie Pate Whitehead Scholarships are provided to undergraduate and graduate students at Oxford College, Emory College, the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Rollins School of Public Health, and Emory University School of Medicine Allied Health Program.

Lettie Pate Whitehead scholarships are included in the recipients’ total financial aid package, and the scholarship follows scholars through their course of study, as long as they remain in one of the above-designated schools. Each school has a Lettie Pate Whitehead Scholars Program Liaison to help guide scholars through their academic careers. Lettie Pate Whitehead had a keen sense of duty to those in need, as well as a gracious and generous spirit. Lettie Pate Whitehead Scholars honor these attributes and responsibilities by participating annually in annual academic lectures, service projects, and professional development programs.

Foundation History

Grantmaking at the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation is inspired by the life of Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans, a philanthropist and businesswoman. The wife of Joseph B. Whitehead, one of the original bottlers of Coca-Cola, Lettie Whitehead took over her late husband’s bottling business and real estate interests, guiding both to great success. She became one of the first female directors of any major American corporation when she was appointed to the board of The Coca-Cola Company in 1934.

Whitehead gave generously to educational institutions throughout her life, and she had a special empathy for elderly women in need. The Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation was created by Conkey Pate Whitehead, her youngest son, as a memorial to his mother. Chartered in 1946, the foundation devotes most of its resources to the Lettie Pate Whitehead Scholarship program, which provides scholarship grants for deserving female Christian students with financial need at more than 200 colleges, universities, and schools in the southern United States.