Biography

Meghan Hughes became the fifth president of the Community College of Rhode Island on Feb. 1, 2016. CCRI is the largest community college in New England with four main campuses and two satellites across the state. The college enrolls 17,000 students per semester, and its workforce division trains another 20,000 Rhode Islanders annually. A state landmark for 51 years, CCRI boasts more than 66,000 alumni.

A Rhode Island resident since 1999, Meghan served as executive director of Year Up Providence from 2009 through 2015. During that period she doubled the size of the program, and the Providence site consistently led Year Up nationally in key metrics, including student retention and positive outcomes. She served on Year Up’s National Management Team, National Senior Leadership and National Investment Committees.

Prior to joining Year Up, she taught at Tufts University from 2003 to 2009 and received the school’s Excellence in Teaching Award. She led new curriculum development and helped build a partnership with Northeastern University.

Meghan graduated magna cum laude from Yale and holds a Ph.D. from New York University.

Meghan is an Aspen Institute Fellow for Community College Excellence. She was recognized by the Rhode Island Foundation with its Community Leader award in 2015 and was named an “Outstanding Woman of the Year” by U.S. Rep. David Cicilline in 2014. Meghan completed the Harvard Business School’s “Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management” in 2013, was a fellow at the Rhode Island Foundation in 2012, and was a member of the Rhode Island School of Design’s Museum of Art’s Board of Governors, where she chaired the Education Committee and was a member of the Executive Committee. She serves on the Year Up Providence board.