Dr. Laura Colson

About

Laura Colson, Ed.D. serves as vice president for Academic Affairs at Bennett College. As the chief academic officer, Dr. Colson provides academic vision and strategic planning that foster active, engaged, and distinctive learning experiences for women of color who aspire to leadership in their fields, social justice, civil rights, and social mobility. She charges herself with building alliances with external partners that foster student academic success outcomes, and enhance the student experience with internships, experiential programs, and student employment. As a result of almost 20 years of experience in higher education, she was selected as a cohort member of the 2020 American Association of State Colleges and Universities' (AASCU) Millennium Leadership Initiative (MLI), created to help prepare traditionally underrepresented groups for university and college presidencies and chancellorships. 

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Education degree in Curriculum and Supervision from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In the spring of 2013, she successfully defended and published her dissertation entitled: “First-Generation Freshman College Students: Factors Impacting Retention for the Subsequent Year” to complete a Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.