Board of Trustee Statements
Interim Chancellor Search
Jun 20, 2023
In a special meeting held on June 20, 2023, the Houston Community College Board of Trustees announced the selection of Margaret Ford Fisher, Ed.D., as the sole finalist for the Interim Chancellor position, effective September 1.
Additional information about Dr. Ford Fisher may be found below.
Biography of Margaret Ford Fisher, Ed.D.
Dr. Margaret Ford Fisher is the founding president of Houston Community College (HCC) Online, the seventh HCC College established February 2018. The Online College was recognized by Newsweek as “One of America’s Best Online Colleges" for 2022 and 2023. As founding president of HCC Online, Ford Fisher has led her team to establish more than 60 fully online degrees and more than 70 hybrid programs with an annual enrollment that has exceeded 62,000 unduplicated student enrollments.
Prior to her Online College presidency, Ford Fisher served 20 years as president of HCC Northeast College. There, she led two successful capital campaigns and community support for annexation by the HCC District with 73% voter approval. She was instrumental in developing new, leading-edge STEM programs in energy and biotechnology, securing federal and state grants, gaining philanthropic support, and brokering relations with business and industry that led to high-tech, stackable-certificate programs and state-of-the-art facilities and enrollment of 14,000 students.
Since joining HCC in 1985, Dr. Ford Fisher has served in multiple leadership positions leading to the presidency, including Interim Vice Chancellor of Instruction, Associate Vice Chancellor of Academics, Dean of Instruction, Division Chair of Arts & Humanities, and Department Chair of English, as well as English professor. She has also taught at Texas Southern University, the University of Houston, and Wichita High School South, and worked as a community relations specialist for a governmental agency. For nine years, she served as assistant professor of Intercultural Communications and International Relations at Wichita State University (KS).
Dr. Ford Fisher has been a lifelong advocate for education locally, nationally, and internationally. She is a long-time member of the HISD advisory committee and a lifetime member of the NAACP, as well as a long-term advisory committee member for the Houston Area Alliance of Black School Educators and board member of the National Congress of Black Women. She is a past board member of the Greater Northside Chamber of Commerce, as well as the Greenspoint and Heights Chambers of Commerce. Nationally, she served on the International Relations Commission of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and is a current member of AACC’s Commission on Technology and Infrastructure Support. She served a three-year term as an elected AACC board member and represented the organization before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy for reauthorization of the National Science Foundation. She also served as AACC spokesperson at the international meeting of foreign ministers of education in Windsor, Canada to promote advanced technology education. Additionally, she presented at the University & College Teaching and Learning conference in Lausanne, Switzerland and the Oxford International Roundtable for Community College Presidents in Oxford, England.
Her numerous awards and honors include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Honorable Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee at the Rice University Community Forum upon her 2012 publication Learning for Ownership; Senior Education Advisor designation by the Honorable Rodney Ellis, former State Senator; and recognitions from the Top Ladies of Distinction, Eldorado Social Club, L & S Academy, and Acres Homes Chamber of Commerce. Dr. Fisher also received the LULAC Council 42 Appreciation Award, the W. E. B. DuBois Award from the National Alliance of Black School Educators, the District Award of Merit from the Sam Houston Council of Boy Scouts of America – Antares District, and the Visionary Leaders Award for 20 years of Exemplary Service from the Northeast College faculty and staff in December 2017.
Dr. Ford Fisher is an author of more than 50 publications and four books, including the first book focused on dual credit, High School Students Earning College Credit: Guide to Creating Dual Credit Programs (1996), which bolstered dual credit enrollment across the country and received national and international acclaim.
Dr. Margaret Ford Fisher holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Arts in the Teaching of English from Wichita State University, as well as a Doctorate of Education in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Houston. While at Wichita State University, Dr. Ford Fisher was nominated by Rhodes Scholar and former University President, Dr. Emory Lindquist, to participate in the Study Abroad Program at Oxford University in the field of International Relations.