Christine Johnson Mcphail

Christine Johnson McPhail is the president of the McPhail Group LLC, a higher education consulting firm dedicated to realizing the potential of individuals and organizations. In this capacity, she serves as a leadership coach for over a dozen Achieving the Dream institutions in eight different states. She is a certified trainer with Emergenetics International, an organizational development consulting company. Dr. McPhail is a professor emerita of higher education, founder of the Community College Leadership Doctoral Program at Morgan State University in Maryland, and former president and chief instructional officer at Cypress College in southern California.

Dr. McPhail has served on boards for national organizations including the Gates Foundation’s Completion by Design National Advisory Committee; the Future Presidents Institute sponsored by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC); Board of Directors for the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC); National Advisory Council for the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE); Advisory Committee for the National Center for Postsecondary Research (NCPR) at the Community College Research Center at Columbia Teachers College (CCRC); the Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC); Affirmative Action Office, Division J, at the American Education Research Association (AERA); and the editorial board for the Community College Journal of Research and Practice. Currently she serves on the National Advisory Board for the Doctor of Education in Community College Leadership program at Roueche Graduate Center, National American University.

She is the author and coauthor of numerous articles and books including “From Tall to Matrix: Redefining Organizational Structures”; Establishing and Sustaining Learning-Centered Community Colleges (an AACC best-selling publication); “Fighting the Execution Gap Syndrome: Real Strategies for Student Success” (2015); “A Case for Grow-Your-Own” (2014); “Leave the Cave: Professional Development to Improve Student Success” (2013); “Illuminating the Experiences of African-American Female Community College Students in Developmental Education” (2011); Bringing Teaching and Learning to the Board Room: A Professional Development Framework (2011); and Transforming Classroom Practice for African American Learners: Implications for the Learning Paradigm (coauthored with her husband, Irving Pressley McPhail), which won the 2000 Research Award from the Maryland Association for Adult, Community, and Continuing Education. Her most recent publication, Practical Leadership in Community Colleges: Navigating Today’s Challenges, coauthored with Dr. George R. Boggs, was released in July 2016.

Dr. McPhail has received several awards, including the 2010 American Association of Community College’s (AACC) Leadership Award and the 2008 League for Innovation in the Community College’s Terry O’Banion’s Leadership Award. Dr. McPhail’s research interests lie in the interaction of three fields of higher education: leadership development, governance, and teaching and learning.