Nicholas C. Donohue
President & CEO
Nellie Mae Education Foundation
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Nicholas C. Donohue became the
second President and Chief Executive Officer in the history of the
Nellie Mae Education Foundation on December 1, 2006. He succeeded the
Foundation’s first President and CEO, Dr. Blenda J. Wilson.
Established on July 1, 1998, the Nellie Mae
Education Foundation is one of the largest charitable organizations in
New England, and the largest focused exclusively on
education.
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Mr. Donohue was previously a Special Master
at Hope
High School in Providence, Rhode Island,
where he was appointed to oversee implementation of the Rhode
Island Commissioner of Education’s Decision and Order to
reconstitute the school.
Before his role at
Hope High School,
Mr. Donohue served as Commissioner of Education for the state of
New Hampshire, where he provided
professional support and technical assistance to the State Board
of Education, the Governor's office, and the Legislature on all
aspects of education policy and educational improvement
strategies. He was responsible for developing department-wide
initiatives, such as the statewide assessment program and
accountability and standards system. He also designed the
state’s responses to federal education legislation and
regulations.
Mr. Donohue has also served as
New Hampshire’s Deputy Commissioner of
Education, and as a trustee of the University System of New
Hampshire and the New Hampshire Community Technical College
System. He has held a seat on the New Hampshire Post Secondary
Education Commission, the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium
Commission, and the Governor’s Commission on Alcohol and Drug
Abuse. He was also, briefly, a member of the Nellie Mae
Education Foundation’s Board of Directors.
His previous positions include Director of
District and School Services for Learning Innovations, where he
planned and implemented school improvement strategies, focusing
on organizational and professional development; Project Director
of the Boston Leadership Academy at Boston University, where he
designed and delivered ongoing support and training for 16
Boston public schools as part of the School Leadership for
Student Achievement Project; and Coordinator of the Citywide
Educational Coalition in Boston, where he created the
SchoolWorks Exchange, a resource bank and networking service for
Boston public schools.
Mr. Donohue holds a M.Ed. from Harvard
University School of Education, and a B.A. from Wesleyan
University. For more than a quarter century, he has lived in
four New England states and has worked in all six, including 10
years in Greater Boston.
Under his leadership, the Foundation is
creating a bold new agenda to dramatically improve educational
systems for tomorrow--especially for underserved populations.
Although the College Prep initiative will continue, program work
in Adult Literacy, Minority High Achievement and Out-of-School
Matters is scheduled to end in a few years--providing an
opportunity to refocus strategy and resources. Among the new
areas the Foundation is exploring are early learning,
alternatives to traditional school structures, as well as
nurturing multiple pathways to higher education.
Mr. Donohue lives in Hanson, Massachusetts with his wife,
Marianne DiMascio, and their two children, Jenny and Dorothy.
For more information contact:
Sharon Davis, Nellie Mae Education Foundation
781-348-4257 or sdavis@nmefdn.org
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