Dr. Shirley M. Collado is a nationally recognized higher education leader, nonprofit executive and advocate for first-generation student success. She is President and Chief Executive Officer of College Track, a national college completion organization that supports students from underserved communities from high school through college graduation and into the early stages of their careers.

Across more than three decades in education and institutional leadership, Dr. Collado has worked at the intersection of access, equity, leadership and student mobility. Her work is shaped by a clear belief: talent is widely distributed, but opportunity is too often limited by the systems, relationships and resources available to young people. Through College Track and her wider public leadership, she has focused on building more durable pathways for students who are often the first in their families to pursue a college degree.

Dr. Collado’s own story gives that work particular force. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, as the daughter of Dominican parents, she became the first in her family to attend college. She studied at Vanderbilt University as part of the inaugural cohort of Posse Scholars, an experience that opened the door to higher education and helped shape her understanding of belonging, support and institutional responsibility. She graduated from Vanderbilt with a degree in human and organizational development and psychology, before earning master’s and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from Duke University.

Her career began in academic and student-focused roles before she returned to The Posse Foundation, the organization that had helped shape her own college journey. As Executive Vice President, she played a leading role in expanding Posse’s national work and strengthening the organization’s strategic direction.

Dr. Collado later held senior leadership roles at Middlebury College and Rutgers University-Newark, where she worked across student affairs, institutional planning, diversity, operations and university strategy. These roles deepened her experience in leading complex organizations and reinforced her view that student success depends on both culture and structure.

In 2017, Dr. Collado became the ninth President of Ithaca College. She was the first person of color to lead the institution and the first Dominican-American to serve as president of a four-year college or university in the United States. During her tenure, she led Ithaca Forever, the college’s strategic plan, and guided the institution through a period of significant change in American higher education.

Alongside her executive roles, Dr. Collado has served as a trustee, adviser and board member across organizations focused on education, opportunity and civic life. She is President Emerita of Ithaca College and Trustee Emerita of Vanderbilt University.

At College Track, Dr. Collado continues to advance a practical and urgent vision for higher education: that access to college is only the beginning. For students to thrive, institutions, nonprofits, funders, employers and communities must work together to make college completion achievable, affordable and connected to meaningful futures.