Outstanding Leadership in Queens
2008 Honoree of the Queens Federation of Churches

Dr. Gail O. Mellow

Dr. Gail O. Mellow is President of LaGuardia Community College in Queens, New York City, one of the most ethnically diverse campuses in the United States. LaGuardia, part of CUNY, is a two-year, public, open access college, serving 44,000 full and part-time students from over 160 countries who speak 110 native languages. LaGuardia students go on for baccalaureate education at over twice the national average, and the college supports such activity through its innovative joint programs with Vassar College and Barnard College.

During her seven year tenure at LaGuardia, the college has won numerous awards and achievements. It was named one of the top two community colleges in the country for serving underserved students by the MetLife Foundation, one of the top three large community colleges by the National Survey of Student Engagement, and was chosen by the Ford Foundation to bring together community, faculty and students for “Difficult Dialogues” on their religious, ethnic and cultural differences.
At LaGuardia, Dr. Mellow has spearheaded economic development in Western Queens. Among her achievements is the creation of the LaGuardia Small Business Development Center (SBDC), which provides business counseling in four languages. The SBDC has packaged over $27 million in loans for small businesses since its inception just after September 11, 2001, and provided customized training and other services to over 1,000 local businesses. Under her leadership, over $15 million of external funding is secured annually for workforce development, support for at-risk students, and job-related education for low income individuals. The College also operates NY Designs, a unique business incubator for start-up companies in the design industries.

Dr. Mellow has served in various capacities at the national level, including on the boards of the American Association for Higher Education, the National Commission for Cooperative Education, the Community College Research Center at Columbia University, the Council for the Advancement of Adult Literacy, the National Workforce Strategies Board and the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience.

Dr. Mellow represented the United States at the first-ever US-China Community College Conference in Beijing in 2004, and was the keynote speaker at Reviving the Delphic Ideal in Delphi, Greece in 2006. She is the co-author of three books, including Minding the American Dream: The American Community College with Cynthia Heelan that will be published in 2008, and more than thirty articles on community colleges, economic development, diversity, faculty development, job training, and pedagogical innovation. She is a consulting editor for Change Magazine, the national magazine for higher education.