Dr. Joanne Russell serves as the senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at CUNY Kingsborough Community College, New York, where she has worked since 2016. In this role, she oversees the college’s 15 academic departments; has direct responsibility for all curricular and assessment matters, research, and faculty development; and oversees all offices and programs supporting student success, high school partnership programs, athletics, student life, student conduct, student wellness and counseling, access-ability services, and the Child Development Center.

She was Provost Fellow for Community College Access Programs and Workforce Development at the State University of New York System (SUNY) Administration, responsible for working with SUNY’s community colleges to scale initiatives that increase access, success, completion and workforce development. She has spent over 25 years working in higher education in both faculty and administrative roles, including vice president for academic affairs at SUNY Westchester Community College in New York and chief academic officer at Manchester Community College in Connecticut.

Throughout her career, Russell has provided leadership for equity initiatives, strategic planning, resource development, regional and programmatic accreditation, general education reform, developmental education redesign, high school partnership work, workforce development, program development and expansion, and extensive hiring of faculty and staff. She has been the principal investigator and project director of numerous grant-funded initiatives to strengthen student access, success, and completion. Russell earned a B.S. in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Connecticut.