Stephen Di Dio

Stephen Di Dio is Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at Queensborough Community College of The City University of New York (CUNY), where he has spent more than a decade in executive leadership strengthening institutional capacity, building philanthropic culture, and advancing a shared strategic direction at one of the nation's most diverse community colleges.

A trusted thought partner to three consecutive presidents, Di Dio oversees a portfolio that includes Administrative Services, Information Technology, Institutional Advancement, Marketing and Communications, and the Office of Digital Transformation and Strategic Initiatives. He also provides strategic leadership to the College's three acclaimed cultural institutions: the Queensborough Performing Arts Center, the Kupferberg Holocaust Center, and the QCC Art Gallery.

He co-authored Queensborough's first five-year strategic plan, driving measurable gains in student retention and meaningful reductions in equity gaps. Under his leadership, the College has grown its fundraising capacity, strengthened relationships with donors and foundations, and deepened community partnerships to enhance its mission and extend its impact. Today, Queensborough is widely recognized as a model for equity-centered education and the advancement of social and economic mobility.

Di Dio also reimagined campus engagement, centralizing communications, building college-wide transparency channels, and ensuring that the priorities of the strategic plan remain visible and actionable across the institution.

Before higher education, Di Dio led communications for Huffington Post’s Patch Media, where he launched the nationally acclaimed Patch Politics brand and helped shape how millions of Americans engaged with the 2012 presidential campaign across more than 850 hyperlocal news sites in 23 states. His public service career includes senior roles with the New York State Senate and with former U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's communications team and first presidential campaign.

Di Dio holds a Master of Science in Strategic Communication from Columbia University, where he has also taught graduate-level courses, and a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Manhattan College. He has been recognized as a Top Business Leader Across New York City and Long Island by the New York Daily News.

He lives in New York with his husband. His approach to leadership is as personal as it is professional, shaped by the barriers he navigated in his own education and a conviction that institutions can, and must, do better for the people and communities who depend on them.