Dr. Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Ph.D.
By Jeremy Craig, Communications Manager for the Office of the Provost
President M. Brian Blake announced today (Dec. 1, 2021) the appointment of Dr. Nicolle Parsons-Pollard, Ph.D., as Interim Provost effective Jan. 1, 2022.
Dr. Parsons-Pollard was appointed as Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs in 2020. In her role there, she is responsible for creating, implementing and championing a variety of faculty development programs to support and strengthen faculty in teaching and research, as well as leadership programming for department chairs and other administrators. She is responsible for developing and implementing faculty policies and procedures, managing university awards and recognition for faculty, and assisting with the promotion and tenure process.
Recent accomplishments include:
- Negotiating the acquisition of an enterprise system to track faculty through their career life cycle and manage the workflow for review, promotion and tenure.
- Developing a COVID-19 Impact Statement process for review, promotion and tenure.
- Overseeing the University Mentoring Program Initiative as a result of COACHE Survey feedback.
- Creating a new leadership program for women faculty.
- Reorganizing the Office of Faculty Affairs.
Under President Blake’s visioning process for the next university strategic plan, Dr. Parsons-Pollard has been responsible for one of the key pillars that will form the foundation of the next plan – identity and placemaking.
Additionally, Dr. Parsons-Pollard has served as a key member of a leadership team which has tackled some of the most critical issues facing our university and our society, including service on the Task Force for Racial Equality in 2020, as well as a key point person for the university’s action plan to address the task force’s recommendations. (You can read more about the task force at this link, and more about the university’s action plan here.)
She has also provided leadership in Georgia State’s multi-year improvement cycle through the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Faculty Satisfaction process, which aims to improve the academic workplace, and increase retention and engagement of university faculty. (Read more about COACHE here.)
Dr. Parsons-Pollard also has oversight of the Implementation Steering Committee of the Next Generation of Faculty initiative, which has also brought truly impactful measures to bear for the diversification of faculty in recruitment, retention and engagement. (Read more about the Next Generation of Faculty initiative here.)
In her previous role as Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs at Monmouth University (New Jersey), she provided leadership to ensure the integrity and quality of academic programs with an emphasis on student success. She also oversaw the university’s promotion, tenure, and continuance process as well as developing university-wide initiatives to attract and retain a highly qualified and diverse faculty. She served as the inaugural chair of a council that paved the way to the construction of a permanent interactive exhibit honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech on campus in October of 1966 and established the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Speaker on Social Justice series.
Dr. Parsons-Pollard has served as Assistant Vice Provost for Academic Operations at Virginia State University and completed the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows Program in 2014-2015.
Dr. Parsons-Pollard’s academic field of interest is in criminal justice, and she holds an appointment as Professor of Criminal Justice in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology in the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State. Her research and scholarship has focused on program evaluation, juvenile justice, and disproportionate minority contact by the criminal justice system.
She earned her Ph.D. from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) in public policy and administration, as well as a master’s degree in criminal justice and a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from VCU.
A national search for the senior vice president for academic affairs and provost will begin this spring. Dr. Corrie Fountain, currently Director of Faculty Development, will serve as Interim Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs starting in January.
President Blake made additional leadership announcements; they are included in a separate article.