Dr. Monica
Parrish Trent

Dr. Monica Parrish Trent is a nationally recognized leader in higher education and student success, currently serving as chief program and network officer at Achieving the Dream (ATD), a national nonprofit supporting a network of over 300 community colleges across the country. In this role, she leads large-scale, evidence-based initiatives aimed at transforming institutions, expanding opportunities, and improving economic mobility for millions of students. 

With more than 25 years of leadership experience at diverse, multicampus community colleges, Dr. Trent has consistently championed strategic change to remove barriers to success and improve outcomes for low-income, first-generation, and historically underserved students. Her expertise spans change management, enrollment and program redesign, developmental education reform, and digital learning innovation — always with a focus on building cultures of efficacy, agency, and belonging for students, faculty, and staff alike. 

A 2021–2022 Aspen Rising Presidents Fellow, Dr. Trent is a nationally recognized thought leader in system-level transformation. She serves on advisory boards for the Higher Ed Equity Network, Credential As You Go, George Mason University’s Inclusive Excellence Initiative, and Old Dominion University’s Community College Leadership Doctoral Program. Formerly, she served as a peer reviewer for the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the American Association of Community Colleges Commission on Research, Data and Accountability. Named one of Diverse: Issues in Higher Education’s Top 25 Women in Higher Education (2023), she is a frequent speaker and contributor on leadership, teaching, and student-centered innovation. 

How has education changed your life/your family?

Raised in a single-parent household by a young mother who worked towards earning a college degree her entire life, I learned early the power of opportunity, perseverance, and education. I do this work in my mother’s honor and memory.