NCBAA NORTHEAST 2025 Speaker Bios

Dr. Theresa B. Felder serves as the 10th President of Harford Community College. Her focus is on providing access to higher education for all students. She is especially passionate about increasing the number of college graduates from first-generation and low-income backgrounds, which was addressed in her doctoral dissertation.

Since her time as president at Harford Community College, Dr. Felder has made an impact in the community. She has been honored by The Baltimore Sun as one of the 25 Women to Watch: Best in Advocacy, Business and Health. She was recognized with the 2023 Paragon Award for New Presidents by the Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Honor Society and was named as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women by The Daily Record.

Dr. Felder is active in the community and serves on various nonprofit boards, including the Harford County Chamber of Commerce, the Harford County Economic Development Advisory Board, the Susquehanna Workforce Network (SWN), the Northeastern Maryland Technology Council (NMTC), the Greater Baltimore President’s Advisory Committee, University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Health, the Harford Business Roundtable for Education, and the Harford Leadership Academy.

Dr. Felder started her professional career in corporate accounting and later became an independent consultant, specializing in job readiness and employment training. She completed her doctoral degree in Higher Education Leadership at Northeastern University and holds a Master of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University and a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Syracuse University.

Dr. Felder and her husband, Greg, live in Havre de Grace, Maryland. Their son, Gregory, lives in Largo and works for the World Bank in Washington, DC. Their daughter, Taylor, recently graduated from Butler University and resides in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Dr. Jermaine F. Williams became the president of Montgomery College on February 28, 2022.

Dr. Williams’ work in higher education has focused his energies on improving access for students, as well as retention, graduation, and post-completion success. He has paid special attention to mitigating institutional, societal, and racial inequities, strategically creating programs and policies that support historically underrepresented and/or marginalized groups. He has years of experience designing, managing, and enhancing institutional and statewide programs and initiatives that have yielded positive student outcomes.

Dr. Williams has been widely lauded for his inclusive leadership style and for building teams that create strategic programing and policies to improve student outcomes. His professional approach to student success is deeply rooted in equity-minded systems and data-informed analysis. Dr. Williams’ view of higher education as a public good informs his personal passion about enhancing access, completion, and post-completion success, goals that are shared across Montgomery College.

Dr. Daria J. Willis serves as the fifth president of Howard Community College. She assumed office in January 2022, following a nation-wide search process and an unanimous vote by the college’s Board of Trustees. Dr. Willis is the first African American to lead the college in its history.

Dr. Willis is focused on issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, ensuring the college’s culture of care and belonging extends to all students and employees. To build an equitable foundation for students, she has started the process of reorganizing the areas of teaching and learning and student success. An active social media user, Dr. Willis launched her own Instagram Live series, “Conversations from the Couch,” to connect with the community.

Prior to her appointment at Howard Community College, Dr. Willis was the president of Everett Community College in Everett, Washington, where she reported to a five-member board of trustees, managed a $73 million budget, and oversaw an institution with 840 employees. Committed to shared and participatory governance, Dr. Willis practices collaborative leadership and worked directly with three collective bargaining units at Everett.

She is a 2021 Aspen Institute Ascend Fellow, dedicated to empowering children and families across the country. She serves on the Howard County Economic Development Authority Board of Directors and on the advisory board for the Phi Theta Kappa international college honor society. Dr. Willis was named an Influential Marylander in 2022 by The Daily Record.

Dr. Willis earned her Ph.D. in history from Florida State University. She holds a master’s degree in history and a bachelor’s degree in history education from Florida A&M University, a historically Black college in Florida.

Bio coming soon.