Nicole McDonald

Nicole L. McDonald was a higher education leader and scholar focused on equity, student success, and institutional transformation in postsecondary education. She co‑authored Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (first edition 2016; second edition 2022), a work that urges colleges and universities to shift from asking whether students are “college-ready” to examining whether institutions are truly prepared to serve the students they admit.

Across her career, McDonald held senior roles dedicated to student success and organizational change, including serving as Senior Vice President for Transformation Initiatives at Johnson C. Smith University, Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success Strategies at the University of Houston, and Strategy Officer at Lumina Foundation, as well as leadership positions within the Kentucky Community and Technical College System and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education. She was recognized as a national thought leader through her writing, her contributions to major journals, and her frequent presentations at higher education conferences.