NWP Board of Directors

Shirley Robinson Pippins

Board Member since 2009; Member of Conflicts of Interest Committee;
Member of Governance Committee

President, Victory University, Memphis, TN

Shirley Robinson Pippins is President of Victory University in Memphis, Tennessee.

Previously, Pippins was Senior Vice President for Programs and Services at the American Council of Education (ACE). Pippins led a division that included the Center for Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity; the Office of Women in Higher Education; The Spectrum Initiative; the Center for Lifelong Learning; Corporate Programs; Military Programs; and the GED® Testing Service.

Pippins came to ACE in 2009 from Suffolk County Community College in New York, where she had served as president of the two-year, multicampus institution since 2003—the first woman and the first African American to lead the institution in its history. She is a previous member of the executive committee of the Board of the American Association of Community Colleges and serves on ACE's Commission on Advancement of Racial and Ethnic Equity. Pippins is a past chair of ACE's Commission on Women in Higher Education.

Prior to her tenure at Suffolk County Community College, Pippins served for eight years as President of Thomas Nelson Community College in Hampton, Virginia. Pippins has also held senior leadership positions at Westchester Community College (NY).

Pippins earned her doctorate from Teachers College, Columbia University, and has completed studies at Harvard University's Institute for Educational Management. She holds master's degrees from the University of Illinois; Teachers College, Columbia University, and Manhattanville College in New York State. She received her bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois, where she graduated as a member of the Phi Beta Kappa national honor society.