Teachers College alumna Belinda S. Miles has been appointed President of Westchester Community College (WCC). Miles, currently Provost and Executive Vice President of Access, Learning, and Success at Cuyahoga Community College, will take up her new duties in January.  

“The SUNY community colleges were founded on providing unlimited access to quality, affordable higher education and job training to all New Yorkers, and Westchester Community College has done this with widespread success for nearly 70 years,” said SUNY Board Chairman H. Carl McCall in announcing Miles’ appointment. “I am confident that the college will continue to prosper under Dr. Miles’ experienced leadership.”

SUNY Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher called Miles “a passionate leader with precisely the right balance of academic and leadership experience.” 

Miles’ move to the helm of one of the nation’s most highly regarded community colleges is a logical move for a leader whom WCC, in its announcement of her appointment, called “a passionate advocate for the promotion of community college accessibility, an administrator who challenged and supported students through high quality academic programs, and a leader focused on improving student success and completion outcomes.”  

“Community colleges have a tremendous role to play as we work to provide knowledge and skills required for the current and future employment market,” Miles, earned M.A. in Educational Psychology in 1988 and an Ed.D. in Higher Education Organization and Leadership Development in 2000 from TC, said in the spring of 2012 when she became a member of the Commission on Economic & Workforce Development for the American Association of Community Colleges.

WCC is the largest institution of higher education in Westchester County, New York. Miles follows another TC alumnus, Joseph Hankin, who led WCC from 1971 through his retirement last year. The college has been led since then by Interim President John F.M. Flynn.  

In her current role at Cuyahoga Community College, Miles oversees four campuses and multiple extension sites in Cleveland and surrounding suburbs. The institution annually serves 48,000 students. Previously, Miles served as President of Cuyahoga’s Eastern Campus, dean of Academic Affairs, and assistant dean of Liberal Arts. She has been affiliated with the institution since 2000. She has also served in faculty and administrator roles at LaGuardia Community College, Nassau Community College and Columbia University.

Among other accomplishments in Cleveland, she led her team’s effort to secure more than $10 million for college readiness, success and completion, and coordinated STEM initiatives in her role as provost. She completed a $47 million campus master plan physical expansion, and helped achieve Cuyahoga’s second consecutive designation as an Achieving the Dream Leader College and their recent reaffirmation as a League for Innovation in Community Colleges board member based on demonstrated student success outcome improvements.

Miles has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Ohio Diversity Council’s Woman of Power and Influence Award (2013), the Education Award from the Ohio Coalition of National Council of Negro Women (2011) and the YWCA’s Woman of Professional Excellence award (2007).

Originally from Queens, New York, Miles attended public schools and earned a B.A. in Political Science from the City University of New York’s York College.  

Published Monday, Nov. 10, 2014