Nicole Farmer Hurd joined Lafayette as its 18th president after serving as the founder and CEO of College Advising Corps, the largest college-access organization in the nation.

Hurd has guided Lafayette as the first liberal arts college to waive a complex financial aid form for students from high-poverty high schools. She also tripled to $150,000 the family-income level below which financial aid consists of grants only, without any loans; and secured a gift that promises to double the number of students participating in study abroad and internships.

Other major initiatives include improving faculty and staff hiring and compensation; revising the Common Course of Study; promoting effective shared governance and broader faculty involvement in critical decisions such as budgetary allocations; and accelerating efforts addressing diversity, equity and inclusion.

Prior to becoming Lafayette’s president, Hurd was honored as a 2016 White House Champion of Change for College Opportunity; selected as a Featured Innovator by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Time Magazine’s 31 People Who are Changing the South; and named by Washington Monthly as one the most innovative people in higher education, among other accolades.

President Hurd holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Virginia.