Dr. Margaret Ford Fisher

Margaret Ford Fisher, Ed.D., began her tenure as Houston Community College’s (HCC) interim chancellor on Sept. 1, 2023.

From 2018-2023, she served as founding president of HCC Online College, leading to the establishment of more than 60 fully online degrees and 70 hybrid programs, building a 62,000-plus enrolment.

Before that role, she served 20 years as HCC Northeast College president. There, she led two successful capital campaigns and community support for HCC district annexation. She led the development of new, leading-edge STEM energy and biotechnology programs, secured federal and state grants and philanthropic support, and brokered industry relationships that led to high-tech, stackable-certificate programs, state-of-the art facilities, and 14,000 enrolled students.

Since joining HCC in 1985, Dr. Ford Fisher has served in multiple leadership roles, including Interim Vice Chancellor of Instruction, Associate Vice Chancellor of Academics, Dean of Instruction, Division Chair of Arts and Humanities, and English Chair and professor. She has also taught at Texas Southern University, the University of Houston, and Wichita High School South. She was an assistant professor of Intercultural Communications and International Relations at Wichita State University (Kansas) for nine years.

Dr. Ford Fisher has been a lifelong advocate for education locally, nationally, and internationally. She is a long-time member of the HISD advisory committee and a lifetime NAACP member, as well as a long-term Houston Area Alliance of Black School Educators advisory committee member and National Congress of Black Women board member.

She is a past board member of the Greater Northside Chamber of Commerce and the Greenspoint and Heights Chambers of Commerce. She serves on the International Relations Commission of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) and is a member of AACC’s Commission on Technology and Infrastructure Support.

She held a three-year elected term on the AACC board and represented the organization before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy on National Science Foundation issues. She was the AACC spokesperson at the International Meetings of Ministers of Education in Windsor, Canada.

Her awards and honors include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Honorable Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee at the Rice University Community Forum upon her 2012 publication, Learning for Ownership, and Senior Education Advisor designation by the Honorable Rodney Ellis, former state senator. She received the LULAC Council 42 Appreciation Award, the W.E.B. DuBois Award from the National Alliance of Black School Educators, the District Award of Merit from the Sam Houston Council of Boy Scouts of America—Antares District, and the Visionary Leaders Award from the Northeast College faculty and staff.

Dr. Ford Fisher has authored more than 50 publications and four books, including the first book on high school dual credit, High School Students Earning College Credit: Guide to Creating Dual Credit Programs (1996).

She holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and a Master of Arts in the Teaching of English from Wichita State University and a Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Houston.