Gail O. Mellow, president of LaGuardia Community College, will deliver the 2009 commencement address at JCC’s Cattaraugus County and Jamestown campuses.

The Cattaraugus County Campus ceremony on May 15 begins at 7 p.m. in the Olean YMCA/JCC Physical Education Center on Wayne St. in Olean. The commencement program in Jamestown begins at 10 a.m. on May 16 in the Physical Education Complex.

Dr. Mellow received an Associate in Arts degree from JCC in 1973, a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Albany, where she graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and master’s and doctoral degrees from The George Washington University.

A social psychologist with extensive experience in higher education, Dr. Mellow was appointed president of LaGuardia Community College in August 2000. She has served in various faculty and administrative capacities at community colleges in Maryland, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. In addition, she served as director of the Women’s Center at the University of Connecticut and the Project on Women and Technology.

Dr. Mellow has served in various capacities at the national level, including serving on the boards of educational and professional associations as well as non-profit agencies. An active participant in community affairs, Dr. Mellow has also served on a various community boards, including the New York Industrial Retention Network and as a gubernatorial appointee to the New Jersey State Employment and Training Commission.

Dr. Mellow founded and chaired the Northeast Connecticut Economic Alliance, a non-profit economic development agency. A renowned speaker, she represented the United States at the first US-China Community College Conference in Beijing in 2004 and was the keynote speaker at “Reviving the Delphic Ideal” in Greece in 2006.
She is the co-author of two books and more than 30 articles on community colleges, economic development, diversity, faculty development, job training, and pedagogical innovation. She is a consulting editor for Change Magazine, the national magazine for higher education.