Celebrating Our Honorees

Her career has spanned 42 years, beginning as an admission and financial aid officer at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. She then served in a variety of administrative positions at the Community College of Allegheny County. She moved to PGCC, where she held the position of vice president of student services immediately prior to accepting the presidency.

Dr. Dukes is the founder and principal of The Dukes Group LLC, specializing in executive coaching, board development, strategy, equity and inclusion, and advocacy.

She currently serves as immediate past chair of the board of the Meyer Foundation, chair of the CareFirst, Inc. Board of Directors, immediate past secretary of the Greater Washington Community Foundation, and member of the board of Venture Philanthropy Partners+RAISE DC.

Dr. Dukes is a mentor for the Aspen Rising Presidents Fellowship Program, faculty contributor to the Academic Leadership Institute, co-principal investigator for the NSF-funded Community College Presidents’ STEM Initiative, consultant to the Association of Community College Trustees, senior advisor to Education Strategy Group, and a member of the Board of Visitors for the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. In 2020, Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks appointed her co-chair of Prince George’s Forward, a taskforce charged with the post-COVID transformation of Prince George’s County.

She also served as chair of the board of the American Association of Community Colleges, founding faculty of the Leadership Institute of the National Council on Student Development, board member of the American Association of Colleges and Universities, committee member of the American Council on Education, convener of the President’s Round Table for African-American CEOs in Community Colleges, chair of the Maryland Community College Council of Presidents, and board member for the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators and the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

Additionally, she served on the Prince George’s County Board of Education and the Maryland State Board of Education, where she was president for the last three years of her appointed term.

A lifetime member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, Dr. Dukes serves on the National Board of Directors and maintains her local membership in the Prince George’s County Alumnae Chapter. She is also a member of the Prince George’s County Chapter of The Links, Incorporated.

She is a graduate of Indiana University of Pennsylvania and received her master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Pittsburgh.