SOUTH HADLEY — Mount Holyoke College will endow two new faculty chairs named after accomplished alums Debra Martin Chase, a film and musical producer, and Suzan-Lori Parks, a playwright, thanks to an anonymous $6 million gift — the largest gift from a living donor in support of faculty or the humanities.

“With this gift, Mount Holyoke College will continue to shape the future of bold and boundless leaders in the arts and humanities,” President Danielle Holley said in a statement. “Just as Debra Martin Chase and Suzan-Lori Parks were inspired by their Mount Holyoke predecessors such as Wendy Wasserstein, ‘71, the first woman playwright to win the Tony Award on her own, they in turn will inspire and nurture generations of artists and scholars to come.”

The donation will fund a new distinguished faculty position in film media theater and creative writing, including any research or projects the chaired faculty works on. An endowed chair is one of the highest honors in academia.

“The establishment of these chairs is a celebration of the humanities and the arts at a key moment in American life,” said Lisa Sullivan, provost and dean of faculty at Mount Holyoke. “These positions honor the incredible legacy of the arts at the College and the vital achievements of Mount Holyoke’s Black alums.”

Martin Chase, who graduated in 1977, is a three-time Tony Award winner producer and the first Black female producer to sign a deal at a major studio. Martin Chase’s film production credits include “The Princess Diaries,” “Harriet,” “True Spirit” and “Being Mary Tyler Moore.”

Her company, Martin Chase Productions, is currently signed with Universal Television and previously worked with the Walt Disney Company. She’s produced Broadway productions of “The Outsiders” and “A Strange Loop,” both of which won a Tony for Best Musical, as well as the Broadway revival of “Topdog/Underdog,” a play written by Parks.

“What Mount Holyoke gave me was that period of intellectual intensity. I didn’t have to stand down for anybody. At Mount Holyoke, we are all fierce. We are strong,” Martin Chase said.

Parks, a 1985 graduate, won a Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play “Topdog/Underdog” in 2002, becoming the first Black woman to do so. The same title won a Tony for the 2023 Broadway revival. She was a Pulizer finalist for her plays “Father Comes Home From the Wars, Parts 1, 2 & 3” and “In the Blood.”

For her work as a playwright, Parks won both the PEN America/Laura Pels “Master American Dramatist” Award and the Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. Parks studied under James Baldwin in college, who encouraged her to write plays. In 2023, Time Magazine named Parks one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Parks said in 2022 that “Mount Holyoke helped me hear myself. I was sitting in the Rockies [a residence hall] and that was the first time ... I heard the voices in my soul.”

Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.