MCC Hires Assistant Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs

Middlesex Community College is excited to announce Dr. Rossanna Contreras-Godfrey as the new Assistant Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs. As she has spent much of her career guiding students who have been underserved to success, she believes her role with MCC is the perfect next step for her.

“I hope that my impact is in the most positive way possible,” Contreras-Godfrey said. “As this role is newly created, my focus is on being a thought partner for supporting the goals and vision of the college and figuring out where my skill set best meets the tasks at hand. I’m a good listener and a good person to bounce ideas around, and I look forward to soaking up as much as I can and meeting the members of the community.”

At MCC, Contreras-Godfrey will work closely with MCC’s Provost and Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs Dr. Arlene Rodríguez and MCC President Phil Sisson to promote MCC’s mission of providing an equitable education for all students. This ties into her almost 20 years at BC where she helped students pursue paths they never thought possible. In particular, she enjoyed providing students with high-quality opportunities inside and outside of the classroom.

“It gives me a lot of purpose to be able to think about engaging people in ways we can bring students to this table of higher education, how they access us, and more importantly, how they succeed,” she said. “The students I have worked with have done amazing work in all kinds of fields and about 60 percent have gone on to earn graduate degrees.”

In her most recent role with Boston College (BC), Contreras-Godfrey was the Director of Learning to Learn & First Generation Initiatives. She directed two TRiO programs and led a series of programs to support students who were the first in their families to attend college as they transitioned to and graduated from BC.

Contreras-Godfrey earned a bachelor’s and doctorate from BC and a master’s degree from Boston University. While her first job out of college was working at State Street Bank, she went on to accept a job with the TRiO Upward Bound program at North Shore Community College to work as the Assistant Director. From then on, she continued working in education.

“I never turned back from working for educational access and success programs,” she said. “The Upward Bound program provided me with professional development and it impacted me strongly in terms of mentoring students who looked like me and lived in the same area as I did.”

Born in the Dominican Republic, Contreras-Godfrey emigrated to Lynn with her parents and sister when she was 8-years-old. Her father in particular inspired her drive to pursue higher education and he himself graduated from a community college. In high school, she was a TRiO Upward Bound student at North Shore Community College and got comfortable visiting the campus for tutoring and meeting friends.

From the students to the mission, Contreras-Godfrey is excited to come to MCC.

“I feel like I’m coming home to where I started,” she said. “The community college environment is a very important population for me.”