Charlene Newkirk Headshot PictureCharlene Newkirk has served at the Community College of Allegheny County (CCAC) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania as a Campus President since March 2009 and, in July 2019, assumed responsibility as the Southeast Regional President, overseeing Boyce and South Campuses and Braddock Hills and Washington County Centers. In June 2024, she retired from CCAC.

She grew up in Pittsburgh, graduating from Westinghouse High School. She received her BA in English from Oberlin College, and then received a Juris Doctorate from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. She passed the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania bar examination after law school and actively practiced law for several years.

Her experience of many years in progressively responsible roles as a college administrator and educator at large public research institutions as well as small public and private colleges, including the University of Pittsburgh, Florida State University, Arizona State University, the College of Southern Maryland, Oberlin College, and St. Mary’s College of Maryland, combined with her experiences as an executive at CCAC, has made her a well-respected and seasoned professional in higher-education administration. She also served as a college trustee for the College of Southern Maryland.

In the fifteen years that she served at CCAC, Charlene had spearheaded the planning process for the expansion of the Braddock Hills Center from an academic credit campus to a workforce development center, and oversaw renovations at South Campus. She oversaw the development of the “One College Reads” dialogue series leading to a partnership between CCAC and thirty other Pittsburgh area partner agencies and schools through a National Endowment for the Humanities grant and college operating funds. She facilitated the creation of and oversaw the CCAC Leadership Development Institute, a nationally recognized emerging leader program at CCAC. In addition, she and her staff opened a food pantry at South Campus for students in cooperation with the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank that has grown to a college-wide initiative with pantries at all campus locations, implemented community gardens on the campuses, implemented a clothing closet for students who need clothing for job interviews, and partnered with various social service agencies in the region to meet student’s basic needs, thereby ensuring student success. She also co-led the development of the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan after the pandemic, and supervised the Enrollment Management and Student Services Teams from 2021 to 2023.

She has served as a member of more than ten Middle States reaccreditation teams, as a Baldrige-trained examiner team member for the Maryland Performance Excellence Awards Program and as a grant reviewer for the US Department of Education. She is a graduate of Leadership Pittsburgh’s Class of XXVIII.

In Pittsburgh, Charlene was a member of the Jewish Family and Community Services Board (JFCS), the Jefferson Collaborative and the Vision Council for the Jefferson Regional Foundation, the Monroeville Area Chamber of Commerce, the Human Services Corporation Board, was a member of the Structured Pathways Commission for the American Association of Community Colleges, a member of the Center For Shared Prosperity Community Council at Carnegie Mellon University and served as a board member for the Jefferson Hospital for the Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh. In 2021, Charlene was selected as a winner of the Pittsburgh Business Times’ Women of Influence Award, honoring professional women in Western Pennsylvania for outstanding performance and influence for our region. Charlene also received the first annual Sisters Saving Ourselves Now – Excellence in Community Engagement Award in Pittsburgh for demonstrating excellence and the highest standards of civic and social responsibility.

Use the form below to email Charlene Newkirk.
Verified by MonsterInsights