Irving Pressley McPhail, Ed.D.

President and CEO, National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME)

As an Achieving the Dream Coach, Irving Pressley McPhail consults with Prairie View A&M University in Texas.

Prior to his role with Achieving the Dream, Dr. Pressley was Founder and  Principal of The McPhail Group LLC; and Chancellor of The Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC), Baltimore, Maryland, the largest community college and second largest undergraduate institution in Maryland, and the region’s leading partner for workforce and economic development. Previously, Dr. McPhail was President of St. Louis Community College at Florissant Valley in St. Louis, Missouri; and President of LeMoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Tennessee.  Under his leadership, CCBC was named one of 12 Vanguard Learning Colleges in the U.S. and Canada in 2000 by the League for Innovation in the Community College; won the Bellwether Award in the category of Planning, Finance, and Governance in 2000; and was awarded the PBS O’Banion Prize for Leading the Way to Change in Teaching and Learning  in 2003.

Working at the nexus of practice, policy, and research in literacy education, post-secondary student success, community college leadership, and STEM education, Dr. McPhail is the co-editor of Teaching African American Learners to Read: Perspectives and Practices, published by the International Reading Association in 2005, and the author of more than 50 journal articles, chapters, monographs, and technical reports.

Dr. McPhail presently serves on the board of the Society of Manufacturing Engineering—Education Foundation and the National Council on Black American Affairs/Northeast Region. He is a charter member of the Engineers Week (E-Week) Diversity Council.

Educational Background:  McPhail earned a B.S. in Development Sociology at Cornell University; a M.A.T. in Reading at the Harvard Graduate School of Education; and an Ed.D. in Reading / Language Arts at the University of Pennsylvania.