Nikki Youngblood Giles, Ed.D., C’2000, is vice dean for campus life and was previously dean for Beyond Barnard, Barnard College’s newest initiative supporting students and alumnae as they define, pursue and achieve success in their careers and communities.
Giles’ career focus is on student development, advising and program development — especially for students under-represented in higher education. She was the lead for the college’s opportunity programs for a number of years and before that served as director of student programming for the Council for Opportunity in Education, the advocacy group supporting federal TRIO programs in Washington, D.C.
A child development graduate from Spelman, Giles earned her master’s degree at Teachers College of Columbia University, and most recently earned her doctorate in higher education administration from Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at New York University. Her qualitative research examined the resiliency behaviors of first-generation college students and their positive impact on their persistence toward college completion. She resides in Harlem, New York, with her husband and two children.