NERCHE relies on a cadre of Senior Associates—leaders in higher education who have provided valuable assistance and counsel to the Center—to help formulate, carry out, and reflect on its work. Their expertise and rich experience have been essential to the quality of NERCHE’s efforts. NERCHE’s current Senior Associates function as an ad hoc advisory board with an array of expertise, experience, and interests that can be employed to help NERCHE assess current directions and set future ones. Senior Associates help NERCHE reflect on its current practice, develop strategies for change where needed, and lay out future areas of focus and potential sources of funding. NERCHE also works individually with Senior Associates depending on particular needs throughout the year.

 

---

NERCHE Senior Associates

Richard Antonak is Vice Provost for Research and Professor of Research and Disability Studies in the Department of Counseling and School Psychology at UMass Boston. Prior to joining the UMass community he served as Senior Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Chief Research Officer at Indiana State University. Richard has written extensively in the field of physical and mental disabilities.

Cathy Burack is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Youth and Communities at the Heller School at Brandeis University. From 1998 until 2003 she served as the Associate Director of NERCHE where she focused on ways faculty and administrators can fulfill the civic missions of their colleges and universities. Prior to coming to NERCHE, Cathy worked in Student Affairs at the University of Missouri St. Louis and in the nonprofit sector where she directed a shelter for battered women.

Arthur Chickering is a nationally respected writer and teacher of higher education, now retired from a Distinguished University Professor position at George Mason University. He holds a part-time position at Norwich University in Vermont. Arthur is the author, with Zelda Gamson, of the widely read "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education."

Charles Desmond is the Executive Vice President of the Trefler Foundation. Prior to joining the Trefler Foundation, Charlie held many positions at UMass Boston, including Associate Chancellor for School/Community Collaboration, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs, Dean of the College of Public and Community Service, and Project Director for Upward Bound and Director of Pre-freshman Programs. Charlie also served as President of the National Coordinating Council of Educational Opportunity Association, the precursor of the Council for Opportunity in Education (COE). 

Zelda Gamson is the Founding Director of NERCHE and also founded the Doctoral Program in Higher Education Administration at UMass Boston. Before becoming a faculty member at UMass Boston, Zee spent more than 20 years at the University of Michigan as Study Director and Faculty Associate at the Institute for Social Research and as Professor at the Center for the Study of Higher Education and as Associate Director and Professor in the Residential College.

Dwight Giles, Jr. is a Professor of Higher Education Administration at UMass Boston where he teaches courses in learning and curriculum, institutional change, and supervises dissertations in the Doctoral Program in Higher Education Administration. Prior to coming to UMass he was Director of Internships and Professor of the Practice of Human and Organizational Development at Peabody College of Vanderbilt University. From 1980 to 1992, Dwight was a faculty member and program director in the Field and International Study Program at Cornell University. Dwight served as the Interim Director of NERCHE from 2003-2005.

Bernard Harleston is one of the architects of the Doctoral Program in Higher Education Administration at the University of Massachusetts Boston and previously served as President of City College, City University of New York. At Tufts University Bernie served as Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Bernie is a former member of the Corporation of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Visiting Committees to the Department of Psychology and Social Relations at Harvard University and the University of Miami. At present he is a trustee of Tufts University and Lesley College. He has consulted for the Ford Foundation, USAID, and the government of South Africa.

Deborah Hirsch, former Director of NERCHE, is currently the Executive Director of the Boston Higher Education Partnership, a cooperative effort on the part of colleges and universities in the Boston area to support the academic achievement of the young people of the city of Boston. The Partnership is a program of The Education Resources Institute. Deb also served as Adjunct Associate Professor of Higher Education at the Graduate College of Education at UMass Boston.

Larry Ladd leads the higher education consulting practice of Grant Thornton LLP, focusing on strategic planning, financial planning and management, information technology, outsourcing, and inter-institutional collaboration. Before joining Grant Thornton, he served as Director of Budget and Financial Planning at Harvard University, Chief Financial Officer at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Dean of Administration and Dean of the College of Special Studies at Tufts University, Assistant Provost of Boston University, and Assistant to the President of Duke University. He is a former Trustee of the University of Massachusetts.

Tom Parker is currently a Senior Associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy in Washington, D.C. and Senior Advisor to the First Marblehead Corporation. Previously, he served as Executive Vice President and Treasurer of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation in Quincy, MA and as President and CEO of The Education Resources Institute (TERI) in Boston. During the Carter administration, Tom worked in the National Institute of Education, at the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), and in the first Office of the U.S. Secretary of Education. He also served as Director of Planning and Research at the Massachusetts Higher Education Assistance Corporation (now American Student Assistance).

Sherry Penney is the Founding Director of the Center for Collaborative Leadership at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the first holder of the Sherry H. Penney Endowed Professorship in Leadership. Sherry served as Chancellor of UMass Boston from 1988 to 2000. She has also served as interim president of the University of Massachusetts system in 1995 and interim president of SUNY Plattsburgh from1986 to 1987.

Nancy Thomas directs the Democracy Project for the Society for Values in Higher Education and is a senior associate with Study Circles Resource Center and the Paul J. Aicher Foundation in Pomfret, CT. She works with colleges, universities, education associations, communities, and public agencies to advance deliberative dialogue, democratic practices, and ethics on campus, in communities, and in public life in general.

Blenda Wilson served as the first President and CEO of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation from 1999 until 2006. In the past, she served as president of California State University and acted as chancellor of the University of Michigan. Blenda was Executive Director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, where she served as an officer in the governor's cabinet. At the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, Blenda served as Senior Associate Dean. Also a past chair of the American Association of Higher Education, Blenda began her career in higher education administration at Rutgers University in New Jersey.