Gail O. Mellow, President, Fiorello H. LaGuardia Community College, Long Island City, NY

A social psychologist with extensive experience in higher education, Dr. Mellow was appointed president of LaGuardia Community College in August of 2000. She has served in various capacities at community colleges in Maryland, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey: as adjunct faculty, tenured faculty, academic dean, provost, and president. In addition, she was the director of the Womens Center at the University of Connecticut and the director of the Project on Women and Technology.

Dr. Mellow has leadership positions at a number of national higher education associations, including board member of the Board of the American Association for Higher Education, the National Commission for Cooperative Education, the Community College Research Center at Columbia University, the Council for the Advancement Of Adult Literacy, the National Workforce Strategies Board and the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience. She has also served as a Commissioner and Chair of various commissions for the American Council on Education, and Presidential Ambassador Phi Theta Kappa for the Southern District of NY, She has chaired evaluation teams for the New England Association of Schools and Colleges; was a member of the Academic Officers of the New England Resource Center for Higher Education, and the New Jersey Presidents Council.

Active in community affairs, Mellow has also served on the New York Industrial Retention Network, a gubernatorial appointee to the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission, the New Jersey Workforce Investment Board, the Board of the United Way of Gloucester County, Co-chair of the American Heart Association Walk, and on the Board of the Woodbury Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. Mellow founded and chaired the Northeast Connecticut Economic Alliance, a non-profit economic development agency, and was a member of the Human Resource Development Board of the Connecticut Employment & Training Commission and the Private Industry Council, the National Womens Studies Association Womens Center Caucus, the Northeast Domestic Violence Program, and the Connecticut Womens Network.

Active as a keynote speaker across the country, Dr. Mellow represented the United States at the first US-China Community College Conference in Beijing in 2004. Dr. Mellow is the co-author of two books and more than thirty articles on community colleges, economic development, diversity, faculty development, job training, and pedagogical innovation. She is a consulting editor for Change Magazine, the national magazine for higher education.

She received an A.A. from Jamestown Community College, a B.A. from SUNY Albany, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from The George Washington University.

LaGuardia Community College is one of the most diverse community colleges in the country, with its 13,500 credit and 30,000 non-credit students hailing from over 160 different countries and speaking over 100 different languages. Under her leadership, the College was named one of the top three large community colleges in the country in 2003. LaGuardia was the recipient of the 2004 Hesburgh Award, given by TIAA-CREF for Excellence in Education (along with UCLA and Barnard). The College has received over $6 million to begin NY Designs, a business incubator that will nurture business in the design industries. The College is a leader in e-portfolio assessment, aided by over $1.3 million in grants, and has an extensive program for using technology in the classroom. LaGuardia Community College students go on to baccalaureate education at over twice the national average, and the College supports such activity through its innovative joint programs with Vassar College and Barnard College in Exploring Transfer. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently provided over $40 million to a national project, coordinated by the Consortium of Middle College High Schools, to adapt the high school/college collaborative begun at LaGuardia Community College at over 20 sites across the nation.

LaGuardia Community College is the largest provider of Adult and Continuing Education in the City of New York University system. Securing over $12 million annually, these programs serve to provide a range of education and training with everything from helping low income adults learn a skill to providing cultural competency assistance to major corporate and health care leaders. The Colleges Small Business Development Center, developed under Dr. Mellows leadership, has packaged over $15 million in loans and assisted over 1000 businesses since it was opened after September 11, 2001.