The President’s Oval
The President’s Oval is a group of volunteers who serve as trusted advisors to the President.
These are thought-leaders who provide critical external perspective and expertise on a wide range of issues affecting higher education today, including impact and engagement, lack of trust, free speech on campus, high costs and perceived value, equity, new technologies, relevant curriculum and work-readiness.
Members of this group are distinct from members of the Board of Trustees in that they carry no official fiduciary or governance responsibility for the College and are also separate from other more formal groups.
President's Oval Members
Shirley Collado
Shirley M. Collado, PhD, is President & Chief Executive Officer of College Track, the most comprehensive college completion program in the country dedicated to democratizing potential among first-generation college students from underserved communities. Throughout her career, Dr. Collado has leveraged her leadership to advocate for equity in all forms, pushing toward real change by activating an awareness of—and working toward the deconstruction of—existing structures that prevent full participation, whether on campuses or in communities at large. Prior to her leadership at College Track, Dr. Collado served as the ninth president of Ithaca College and, at the conclusion of her tenure, was named President Emerita of the institution. She was the first person of color to be named president at Ithaca College, and the first Dominican-American in the U.S. to serve as president of a four-year institution.
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Nick Donofrio
Nicholas M. Donofrio began his career in 1964 at IBM, where he remained for 44 years in increasingly responsible roles, including those of division president for advanced workshops, general manager of the large-scale computing division, and executive vice president of innovation and technology. A member of several global technical societies, the recipient of several awards and honors, he has also been awarded 10 honorary degrees. He remains sharply focused on advancing education, employment and career opportunities for underrepresented minorities and women especially in the STEM disciplines. He is the founder and CEO of NMD Consulting, LLC.
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Margaret Honey
Dr. Margaret Honey joined the Scratch Foundation as the organization’s President & CEO in January 2024. She is widely recognized for her work using digital technologies to support children’s learning and brings decades of non-profit leadership experience and expertise to the Scratch Foundation. Prior to joining the foundation, Dr. Honey led the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) for 15 years, where she leveraged the museum as a platform for innovation in STEM education and developed NYSCI’s distinctive Design-Make-Play approach to STEM learning. That hands-on approach to STEM learning and engagement was infused into everything from Design Lab, one of the largest design and engineering spaces in the nation, to the long-running World Maker Faire that NYSCI hosted, to the Playground Physics app and curriculum, to Connected Worlds, one of the first and largest digitally immersive exhibits in the world.
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Freeman Hrabowski
Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, President Emeritus of UMBC (The University of Maryland, Baltimore County) served as president from 1992 to 2022. His research and publications focus on science and math education, with special emphasis on minority participation and performance. He chaired the National Academies’ committee that produced the 2011 report, Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America’s Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads. He was named in 2012 by President Obama to chair the President’s Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for African Americans.
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Michael Ku
Dr. Michael Ku is Vice President of Global Clinical Supply (GCS) within the Medicinal Sciences organization of Pfizer’s Worldwide Research, Development and Medical. Michael has over 25 years of biopharmaceutical experience and currently provides strategic leadership for clinical supply chain functions in support of Pfizer’s clinical trials in over 70 countries. His intellectual curiosity and focus on technology and innovation drive his passion to lead the global clinical supply chain to deliver breakthroughs to patients, especially with the COVID-19 vaccine program.
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Alondra Nelson
A scholar of the intersections of science, technology, policy, and society, Alondra Nelson is the Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study, an independent research center in Princeton, New Jersey. She is also a distinguished senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Dr. Nelson was formerly deputy assistant to President Joe Biden and acting director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). In this role, she was the first African American and first woman of color to lead US science and technology policy.
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Rebecca Richards-Kortum
Guided by the belief that all of the world’s people deserve access to health innovation, Rebecca Richards-Kortum’s research and teaching focus is on the development of low-cost, high-performance technologies for remote and low-resource settings. She is known for providing vulnerable populations with access to life-saving health technologies that address diseases and conditions that cause high morbidity and mortality, such as cervical and oral cancer, premature birth, sickle cell disease and malaria.
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Brian Rosenberg
Brian Rosenberg is currently visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. From 2003 until 2020, he served as the 16th President of Macalester College. He is the author of Whatever It Is, I’m Against It: Resistance to Change in Higher Education, published in 2023 by Harvard Education Press. His articles on higher education appear regularly in The Chronicle of Higher Education and have also appeared in publications including The New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. He serves as senior advisor and director at the African Leadership University and as a member of the board of the Teagle Foundation.
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