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Anne M. Kress is the sixth president of Northern Virginia Community College, a role she began in January 2020, after a career of almost three decades in higher education that includes serving as a tenured faculty member in English and in numerous academic administrative roles at community colleges in Florida and New York. At NOVA, Kress focuses on fulfilling the college’s commitment to equity in opportunity and its promise that every student succeeds, every program achieves, and every community prospers.

Kress serves on the boards of higher education groups including the American Council on Education, the American Association of Community Colleges, and the Taskforce on Higher Education and Opportunity. She serves on a program advisory board for the University of Maryland Global Campus and on the board of Generation Hope, which supports the success of student-parents. Kress co-chaired the most recent Virginia Community College System strategic plan, Opportunity 2027, for which she received the Dana B. Hamel Award, the highest honor the system bestows. She has also testified before Congress and served as a negotiator on federal regulations on higher education.

Kress is active in the Northern Virginia region, serving on the boards of the Consortium of the Universities of the Washington Metro Area, the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce, and the Northern Virginia Technology Council. She sits on the steering committee of Connected DMV’s Regional Economic Development Strategy and is a member of the Economic Club of DC and the Greater Washington Board of Trade. Kress is a graduate of Leadership Greater Washington; was named by the Washington Business Journal as a 2021 “Women Who Means Business”; and has been named to the Virginia Business 500 and the Washington Business Journal Power 100 each year since joining NOVA.

Kress earned two bachelor’s degrees, in Finance and English; a master’s degree in English; and a doctorate in Higher Education Administration, all from the University of Florida. She has been honored by her alma mater, Phi Theta Kappa, the New York State Senate, YWCA, and the American Association of University Women, among others.