Melissa Frank-Alston, Ph.D.

Dr. Melissa Frank-Alston has worked in the higher education sector for over twenty-five years at institutions ranging from small to large, public to private/sectarian, liberal arts to technical, and medical to research. Dr. Frank-Alston is currently the Senior Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness & Research at Augusta Technical College in Augusta, Georgia. She has been with the College since 2005 and has served in many capacities including Vice President for Student Affairs and Vice President for Academic & Student Affairs. She currently serves as the college’s accreditation liaison to the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), core team leader for the college’s Achieving the Dream initiative, and the faculty/staff representative to the Augusta Technical College Foundation.

As the grant writer and grants manager, Dr. Frank-Alston has collaborated with faculty, staff, administrators, and local business and industry partners to secure over $7.8 million to support student success efforts at Augusta Technical College since 2010. Dr. Frank-Alston holds a PhD in Workforce Education & Development with an emphasis on Training/ Human Resources from Pennsylvania State University, a MS in College Student Personnel with an emphasis in Counselor Education Administration from Western Illinois University, and a BA in Anthropology from Northwestern State University of Louisiana. She is a 2007 graduate of Leadership Augusta and a 2013 graduate of the Technical College System of Georgia Executive Leadership Academy. She and her husband Dr. Sparticus Alston have two daughters, Cosette, age 16 and Colette, age 12.