Women Making Greater Strides Toward Executive Office - Higher Education

Women Making Greater Strides Toward Executive Office - Higher Education: On paper, there’s every indication that this woman was destined to be leading a university. A good chunk of Dr. Marie Foster Gnage’s career in higher education was filled with migrations from one position to the next, each elevating her to the next career rung at institutions from Mississippi to New Jersey.

Fresh out of graduate school, she started out on the faculty side as an instructor at Alcorn State University before moving to Florida A&M University in Tallahassee and up to an assistant professor of English. Then she decided to give community college administration a try, first becoming a department chair at Central Florida Community College in Ocala, Fla. Landing that position, which also allowed her to teach, kept her moving on the administration track. She enjoyed the work and the new challenges each position brought, but even then, there was no real plan for where any of them would lead.