Nicole McDonald

Recently, she served as Senior Vice President for Transformation Initiatives at Johnson C. Smith University including leading and managing the implementation of the Golden Blueprint Strategic Plan, the Charlotte Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative to transform Johnson C. Smith University for future success including an $80M commitment over five years, and the United Negro College Fund Blue Meridian Partnership Transformation Project including $1.6M in funding over three years. Previously, she served as Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success Strategies at the University of Houston and led operations for a regional consortium of 13 public community colleges and universities in the Gulf-Coast-Houston metro area, Houston Guided Pathways to Success (Houston GPS), collaborating to improve outcomes for all students through the implementation, innovation, and scale of evidence-based practices—including developing and raising almost $1M to support a regional equity initiative for the partnership.

Dr. McDonald is an accomplished postsecondary education leader. She served as a Strategy Officer at Lumina Foundation where she led and managed more than $15 million in grants and contracts to support the educational attainment of significant numbers of today’s students—impacting more than 500 community colleges and universities, 50 organizations, and 30 states. Her background includes education policy as well as academic and student affairs administration including her work as System Director for Transfer and Retention at the Kentucky Community and Technical College System; Associate in Academic Affairs at the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education; and in various capacities at other postsecondary institutions.