On July 1, 2022, President Larry Johnson announced the appointment of Dr. Nicola Blake as the Interim Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) of Stella and Charles Guttman Community College.
Dr. Blake has had a distinguished career in CUNY for 22 years and she has been an integral member of the Guttman community since 2011. In addition to her role as Interim Provost & VPAA, Dr. Blake is Associate Professor of English at Guttman, where she has also served as Dean of Faculty & Academic Affairs, Faculty Advisor to the Provost, Special Advisor to the Provost for Faculty Development and Mentoring, Liberal Arts and Sciences Coordinator, Chair of the Faculty Personnel Committee, the College Personnel Committee, and the Curriculum Committee among other senior leadership roles. Of her long-term commitment to Guttman’s success she states, “At Guttman we have worked together to fulfill our promise to build and scale an audacious dream of creating a transformative model that disrupts the status quo in higher education. This is a dream I will continue to strive toward in this new role.”
Dr. Blake’s disciplinary research examines the role of narrators and narrative structure in medieval and modern literature, while her teaching and learning scholarship focuses on collaborative practices and pedagogies of engagement. She received her B.A. with honors in English and psychology from the CUNY and a Ph.D. in medieval literature from Rutgers University. Dr. Blake’s expertise in curriculum and program development, assessment, and strategic planning is internationally recognized through her role as a US Fulbright Specialist (2015-2020). Prior to joining the founding faculty at Guttman, Dr. Blake taught at Rutgers University, New Brunswick and The City College of New York, CUNY for over 10 years. At CCNY, she was Director of the Samuel Rudin Academic Resource Center and led numerous presidential initiatives on student success. Dr. Blake was awarded the prestigious and highly competitive American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship for 2016-2017. As an ACE Fellow, she focused on student success initiatives, strategic planning, communication, and community partnerships. Dr. Blake has extensive Leadership training and is an alumna of the Higher Education Leadership Programs for Women (HERS), Harvard Institute for Higher Education, and the AACC Future Presidents Institute.
As Provost, Dr. Blake will foster ongoing mutual transformation: students transforming Guttman by bringing to bear their lived experiences and ambitions; Guttman transforming students through its culturally-engaged and intellectually rigorous curriculum and co-curriculum; and members of the college community transforming one another through honest and transparent commitments to mutual support and accountability. With more than $5 million dollars in Grants at the college, she has been an effective fundraiser at Guttman. She is currently the PI on two of the College’s Title V grants and has consistently worked with her team to ensure the financial support of Guttman’s transformational educational experience, especially during this time of great change in higher education.
Dr. Blake’s appointment as Guttman’s Interim Provost is effective from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.
About the College
Guttman Community College has won national notice for its high graduation rates and innovative first-year experience academic model. CUNY’s first new community college since 1971. When it opened its doors to students in 2012, its mandate was to reimagine the delivery of a community college education so that a higher percentage of students would complete successfully and transfer to a four-year undergraduate institution. Designated as both a minority (MSI) and Hispanic (HSI) serving institution, 87% of Guttman students are students of color, with 55% Hispanic and 32% Black enrollment. As of fall 2020, approximately 1,020 students were enrolled at the College.
