Westchester Community College Appoints Dr. Vanessa Morest

From Westchester Community College: Westchester Community College President Belinda Miles announced the appointment of Dr. Vanessa Morest, dean of institutional effectiveness at Norwalk Community College in Connecticut, as the college’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, effective this summer.

Dr. Morest is an accomplished academic leader, administrator, researcher, author, and faculty member with two decades of community college experience. She is an immigrant who values public education and understands the experience of first generation college students. Her commitment to college access, student success, and academic excellence is evident in her progressively responsible experience with community colleges.

Her leadership experience at Norwalk includes two years as interim dean of academic affairs and chief academic officer with oversight responsibility for all academic areas of the college, including credit and non-credit programs and academic support services. She has extensive experience collaborating with faculty and staff with a focus on helping community college students succeed. She has been involved in expanding high school partnerships and developing programs supporting current and future industry demands.

“Dr. Morest offers broad expertise in expanding programs for college access and success, which is a skill set well aligned with the college’s mission and strategic plan for continued innovation across multiple areas,” said Miles. “Working closely with faculty and staff, Dr. Morest will be a partner who will assist with the implementation of a range of new programs centered on data-driven student success outcomes. Her collaborative approach to this nuanced work will be a key asset to continuing to position the college for growth.”

Dr. Morest joins Westchester Community College at an exciting time in the college’s 71-year history. More students are graduating than ever before with a nearly 50 percent jump in graduation rate since 2015. Already the most affordable college in Westchester County, the college’s Board of Trustees recently approved a budget with no tuition increase for the fifth consecutive year. Combined with the state’s free tuition Excelsior Scholarship and new credit and non-credit programs in high demand fields, the college is poised for higher levels of growth and student success.

Prior to joining Norwalk in 2006, Dr. Morest served as assistant director for postsecondary research at the Community College Research Center where she led and contributed to numerous studies evaluating college programs and practices. She is co-editor of Defending the Community College Equity Agenda (2006) with Thomas Bailey, director of the Community College Research Center, and is author of Community College Student Success: From Boardrooms to Classrooms (2013), which reviews a decade of student success reform at community colleges.

Dr. Morest has taught as an adjunct faculty member in sociology at Norwalk and has taught both undergraduate and graduate courses at Teachers College, Columbia University. She earned her B.A. in English from the College of William and Mary and her M.A. and Ph.D. in sociology of education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

This appointment concludes an extensive national search that commenced in spring 2016. Interest in the position was wide-ranging, with significant interest expressed by diverse and highly qualified college leaders from across the country.

Westchester Community College is the largest higher education institution in Westchester County. In addition to offering more than sixty academic programs (credit), the college also has the largest Division of Workforce Development and Community Education in the entire State University of New York system.

Photo courtesy of Westchester Community College