On July 1, 2022, President Larry Johnson announced the appointment of Dr. Nicola Blake as the Interim Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs (VPAA) of Stella and Charles Guttman Community College.
Dr. Blake has had a distinguished career in CUNY for 22 years and she has been an integral member of the Guttman community since 2011. In addition to her role as Interim Provost & VPAA, Dr. Blake is Associate Professor of English at Guttman, where she has also served as Dean of Faculty & Academic Affairs, Faculty Advisor to the Provost, Special Advisor to the Provost for Faculty Development and Mentoring, Liberal Arts and Sciences Coordinator, Chair of the Faculty Personnel Committee, the College Personnel Committee, and the Curriculum Committee among other senior leadership roles. Of her long-term commitment to Guttman’s success she states, “At Guttman we have worked together to fulfill our promise to build and scale an audacious dream of creating a transformative model that disrupts the status quo in higher education. This is a dream I will continue to strive toward in this new role.”
Dr. Blake’s disciplinary research examines the role of narrators and narrative structure in medieval and modern literature, while her teaching and learning scholarship focuses on collaborative practices and pedagogies of engagement. She received her B.A. with honors in English and psychology from the CUNY and a Ph.D. in medieval literature from Rutgers University. Dr. Blake’s expertise in curriculum and program development, assessment, and strategic planning is internationally recognized through her role as a US Fulbright Specialist (2015-2020). Prior to joining the founding faculty at Guttman, Dr. Blake taught at Rutgers University, New Brunswick and The City College of New York, CUNY for over 10 years. At CCNY, she was Director of the Samuel Rudin Academic Resource Center and led numerous presidential initiatives on student success. Dr. Blake was awarded the prestigious and highly competitive American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship for 2016-2017. As an ACE Fellow, she focused on student success initiatives, strategic planning, communication, and community partnerships. Dr. Blake has extensive Leadership training and is an alumna of the Higher Education Leadership Programs for Women (HERS), Harvard Institute for Higher Education, and the AACC Future Presidents Institute.
As Provost, Dr. Blake will foster ongoing mutual transformation: students transforming Guttman by bringing to bear their lived experiences and ambitions; Guttman transforming students through its culturally-engaged and intellectually rigorous curriculum and co-curriculum; and members of the college community transforming one another through honest and transparent commitments to mutual support and accountability. With more than $5 million dollars in Grants at the college, she has been an effective fundraiser at Guttman. She is currently the PI on two of the College’s Title V grants and has consistently worked with her team to ensure the financial support of Guttman’s transformational educational experience, especially during this time of great change in higher education.
Dr. Blake’s appointment as Guttman’s Interim Provost is effective from July 1, 2022 through June 30, 2023.
About the College
Stella and Charles Guttman Community College is CUNY’s first new community college in more than forty years. Reimagining what community college could be, Guttman opened its doors in Manhattan in August 2012 to create a research-based, innovative model focused on moving students efficiently toward graduation. Offering associate degree programs in a nurturing environment, the College provides holistic support and advising to ensure timely degree completion, and most graduates transfer to senior colleges. Guttman is federally designated as a Hispanic-serving institution and minority-serving institution with more than 90% of the student population identifying as Latine, Black/African American or Asian. Guttman was named the best community college in America in 2020 and the top community college in New York State in 2020 and 2021 by Niche.com, and WalletHub ranked Guttman the #1 community college in New York State for 2025.