Jacquelyn Meredith Belcher, J.D.
President, Options Unlimited, LLC
President Emeritus, Georgia Perimeter College
As an Achieving the Dream Coach, Dr. Belcher consults with five community colleges in New England and the Pacific Northwest with foci on improving their student retention and graduation rates, particularly for low-income students and students of color.
Prior to her role with Achieving the Dream, Dr. Belcher served as president of Georgia Perimeter College, with six campuses located in Metro-Atlanta, Georgia for 10 years. Dr. Belcher also served five years as president of the former Minneapolis Community College in Minneapolis, MN prior to the merger of the technical and community colleges in Minnesota. In addition, she served 15 years at Bellevue Community College, Washington State and five years at Lane Community College, Oregon in the faculty and/or administration. She has also held faculty and executive/CEO positions in North Dakota, Nebraska, and Oregon’s schools of Nursing.
Currently, Dr. Belcher is an educational career coach; a facilitator for American Council on Education’s Fellows’ Program; a curriculum designer and faculty for Kaleidoscope Leadership Institute; and facilitator of the Distributive Leadership Institute for Options Unlimited, LLC. In addition she serves on different education boards such as, KnowledgeWorks and Gateway to College National Network.
Educational background: Dr. Belcher holds a J.D. from Seattle University, Seattle Washington; a M.A. in psychosocial nursing and psychology including post master’s work in business from the University of Washington; and, a B.S. degree in Nursing from the former Marymount College in Salina, Kansas.
She is an alumnus of: Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education’s Institute for Management of Lifelong Education; the League for Innovation in the Community College’s Executive Leadership Institute; and Staub Leadership Consultants’ HILS (Helping Individuals Lead Successfully) Program. Dr. Belcher is a Personal Strengths’ Qualified and Certified Relationships Awareness Facilitator.
