Del Anderson Handy grew up in a small town near Vicksburg, Mississippi, where she worked alongside her great-grandmother, a midwife and forewoman on a plantation. She began studies at Alcorn College and after leading a student protest against racism she left the South and moved to California. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in human development and family life education, and a Master's in Social Work at San Diego State, and shortly became a member of the faculty there, the third African-American on the tenure track in a university of that size. After a number of posts in community colleges, she was named Chancellor of San Francisco City College, where she played a leading role in a $150 million bond campaign to build two new campuses. A lifelong fighter for civil rights, Del Handy retired 1998 and is active on the boards of several Bay Area organizations.