Harrington, Nicki

Dr. Nicki Harrington was born and raised in the Midwest. She began her teaching career in the California Community Colleges in 1975, where she served as a tenured faculty member for over 18 years. Since that time she has held

faculty and administrative positions in both two and four-year colleges and universities in California, Wisconsin, and Oregon, and taught organizational change at the graduate level. She has extensive experience in organizational assessment, data-driven decision making, strategic and educational master planning, integrated planning models, accreditation, student learning outcomes, guided pathways,

and economic and workforce development. She is an executive coach and a trained facilitator, and has provided Board development, college team-building, and coaching for aspiring educational leaders.
She has led and facilitated large charrettes, governing boards, and small focus groups in both higher education and the private sector to build consensus and foster vision. She has served as a project lead and senior CBT consultant for institutional assessment, and integrated strategic and educational master planning, since 2011 for projects in California and several other states.

Dr. Harrington served in three community college CEO positions over a span of 14 years, including two Superintendent / President positions, and as the District Chancellor of a multi-college district. She led
the development of Strategic and Educational Master Plans in several community and technical colleges with multiple campus sites, and led the expansion of a campus education center into an accredited college. She also led the successful passage of two multi-campus facilities bonds in two states, focused on the expansion of college services and facilities to underrepresented populations. Dr. Harrington has facilitated accreditation processes for colleges across the nation under four different regional accrediting associations, and has done extensive work with integrated planning, organizational assessment and development, enrollment management, guided pathways, workforce development, non-traditional

and marginalized populations, and student success. She is also the author of a college textbook used nationally in two-year colleges. Dr. Harrington has served on numerous statewide committees and task forces, including eight years on the Board of the Chief Executive Officers of California Community Colleges, where she held the positions of Vice- President and President in 2007-09. In the area of economic and workforce development, she served four years on the State Apprenticeship and Training Board for the state of Oregon, and nine years on California’s Economic and Workforce Development Program Advisory Committee.