Nicola Pitchford, the tenth president of Dominican University of California in San Rafael, will step down from her role in June 2027.
Dr Pitchford began her presidency in July 2021, following 10 years of service to the university as vice president and dean of the faculty. Under her leadership, Dominican University has transformed its student learning model, improved its four-year gradation rate, received numerous institutional grants, developed new infrastructure, and secured philanthropic gifts centered on advancing educational equity and social mobility.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to work alongside President Pitchford and to witness firsthand her profound commitment to Dominican students,” said Darryl Page, chair of Dominican’s board of trustees. “She was an original architect of Dominican’s distinctive approach to student support, and so much of the institution’s progress over the last decade and a half is thanks to her expert and compassionate leadership.”
Before joining Dominican, Dr. Pitchford spent 16 years on the faculty of Fordham University in New York. She held several leadership roles throughout her tenure, including chair of the English department, co-director of the literary studies program, director of graduate studies in the English department, and associate vice president for academic affairs and associate chief academic officer.
As a scholar of British literature, Dr. Pitchford has conducted research on the history of the Booker Prize, including the critical controversies that have attended various prize winners. She is also widely published on topics such as the British novel, Black British writing, nature writing, the liberal arts, and global engagement of faculty. Dr. Pitchford is the author of Tactical Readings: Feminist Postmodernism in the Novels of Kathy Acker and Angela Carter (Bucknell University Press, 2002).
Dr. Pitchford is a graduate of Pomona College in California, where she majored in English and creative writing. She holds a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in English with an emphasis on modern and contemporary U.S. and British literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.