This second article in a series of three featuring profiles of high achieving women in higher education represents what Diverse editors know to be true—when it comes to leadership, women are now taking on long-overdue roles. Diverse considers these women representative of the pioneering professionals found throughout the academy. Their ranks will continue to grow and spread. Diverse anticipates that these women will provide encouragement to their colleagues as well as those who will follow in their esteemed footsteps.
Kimberly Ford
For Kimberly Ford, work in the NCAA has been about giving back. Just 12 years ago, a yearlong NCAA internship aimed at opening doors for women and minorities interested in professional jobs in sports administration helped catapult Ford to a place at the top of her field. As the NCAA’s director of minority inclusion since 2010, Ford has been on a mission to create a culture of inclusion and equity for student-athletes, coaches, and administrators from diverse backgrounds. Ford’s wish: “To see in my lifetime that the work I am doing now is no longer needed.” Ford earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in sports management from Baylor University. (see photo)
Lenora M. Green
At the end of the day, when new doors open to make college access and opportunity possible, especially for underrepresented and underserved students, Lenora M. Green feels “fortunate and blessed” that her work at the Educational Testing Service (ETS) is helping to turn their dreams of higher education into reality. Today, Green, who began her career at ETS in Princeton, N.J., nearly 30 years ago, is living her dream and pursuing her passion. As ETS’s director of client relations, Green partners with national organizations and communities that represent underserved populations. And through the Social Investment Fund, ETS’s philanthropic arm, Green focuses on improving educational opportunities for African-American, Hispanic, Native American, and Asian American and Pacific Islander students and organizations. Says Green: “When deserving students don’t have someone early on in their lives to let them know what possibilities higher education holds, it is a loss for them and for society.” Green holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish language and literature from Rutgers University. (see photo)
Hilda Hutcherson
Poor Black girls from Tuskegee, Ala., don’t grow up to become physicians is what some teachers and counselors told Dr. Hilda Hutcherson when she shared her childhood dream. Today, Hutcherson is not only a clinical professor but dean of diversity and minority affairs at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. The practicing ob-gyn is credited with boosting lagging minority enrollment at the college from 8 percent in 2002 to more than 20 percent over a three-year period. Getting there, she says, “took pounding the pavement, going to countless recruitment fairs, and reaching out to high school students.” Hutcherson also has made “empowering women to take better care of themselves and their daughters” her mission beyond the classroom. Hutcherson earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and a medical degree from Harvard Medical School. (see photo)
