President's Office

Claudia V. Schrader, MA, Ed.M., EdD

Dr. Claudia V. Schrader took the helm as president of Kingsborough Community College (KCC) of The City University of New York (CUNY) in September 2018. She is the College’s 7th president, and she holds the distinction of being the first African American in the College’s history to hold that office since the College was founded in 1963.

Within the first eight months of her tenure, Dr. Schrader secured $1 million donation from Leonard & Louise Riggio, founders of Barnes & Noble, for student scholarships. The gift stands as the largest gift in the College’s history. Since she assumed the presidency, the College has garnered over $13 million in Workforce Development Program funding and launched KCC Flex, an affordable, flexible way for adult learners to obtain their college degree through online and on-campus courses. With her goal of bringing college to the community, in October 2022, KCC unveiled its first satellite location during a ribbon-cutting ceremony of Chestnut Commons, a 14-story building at 110 Dinsmore Place in East New York/Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. 

Recognizing that incoming students were missing out on the excitement of beginning their college experience on campus, Dr. Schrader created the KCC Welcome Wagon in 2020; traveling around Brooklyn and throughout NYC’s other boroughs to meet incoming students at their homes and jobs to welcome them to KCC and assure them that they would find KCC and its President accessible, available, and ready to support their success. Articles on this signature initiative have appeared in several media outlets, including Inside Higher Ed, Community College Daily, Case.Org, Forbes, Positive Community Magazine; NY1; Brooklyn Paper, Carnarsie Courier; NY Daily News; and in Schneps Media’s Bay News and NY Carib News, as part of the monthly column that she writes for Schneps Media papers.

In 2021, the Aspen Institute College Excellence Program selected Dr. Schrader as one of 25 leaders for the 2021-2022 class of the Aspen New Presidents Fellowship. She currently serves on the Boards of ITHAKA and the Higher Education Resource Services (HERS), and was recognized as one of three recipients of the 2022 AAC&U-Cengage Inclusion Scholarship. Awarded by the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) and education technology company Cengage, the scholarship is awarded to currently serving campus presidents in recognition of their outstanding leadership to advance equitable liberal education. In 2021, she was inducted into the Rutgers African American Alliance Hall of Fame and was recently named as part of the Power Women of Brooklyn, an honor for women who make Brooklyn the thriving and vibrant place it is to work, live and do business.

President Schrader was included on Diverse Magazine’s 2023 list of Influential Women Educators, PoliticsNY and amNY Metro’s 2023 Power Players in Education, City and State’s 2022 Higher Education Power 100, City and State’s Brooklyn Power 100, and NY Carib News’ Caribbean Power 100 and Women Impacting Education. 

Prior to becoming president at Kingsborough, she served as provost and senior vice president at Bronx Community College, CUNY; as associate provost at William Paterson University of New Jersey; and as associate provost at Medgar Evers College, CUNY, where she also held faculty rank with tenure. Dr. Schrader also taught as an adjunct at Teachers College, Columbia University, Bank Street College, and the College of New Rochelle. Her professional service includes serving as a peer evaluator for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education; membership on the American Association of Community College’s (AACC) National Council for Black American Affairs; and a 3-year term on the AACC Commission on Diversity, Inclusion and Equity.

Born and raised on St. Croix, the largest of the United States Virgin Islands, Dr. Schrader earned her undergraduate degree from Rutgers University and her Master of Arts, Master of Education, and Doctorate in Education from Columbia University, Teachers College. Dr. Schrader also obtained a certificate from the Institute for Educational Management at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.

Believing strongly in giving back to both her local and global community, Dr. Schrader is a Life member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated® and serves as president of the Eta Omega chapter of the Sorority. She serves on the Board of Habitat for Humanity NYC and since 2006, has served as a volunteer with its Global Village program, building 21 homes throughout countries in Africa, Asia, Central America, and Southeast Asia.