Dr. Yves Salomon-Fernández is the President of Urban College of Boston. Dr. Salomon-Fernández has spent most of her career helping to unlock human potential in others through higher education, mentoring, and service to her varied communities. She believes deeply in democratizing access to higher education by fostering a sense of belonging among those for whom college completion has not been a legacy.
Yves has served as a college president in Massachusetts and New Jersey. Prior to joining Urban College of Boston, she was Senior Vice President for Operations Planning at Southern New Hampshire University. She couples her administrative experience with teaching periodically at the graduate level as an adjunct professor. She is the author of several articles and book chapters, and a frequent blogger. She serves on the Editorial Board for New Directions for Community Colleges, a Wiley Publication. Dr. Yves Salomon-Fernández also serves periodically as a reviewer for Johns Hopkins University Press and is a past reviewer for the National Science Foundation.
Yves Salomon-Fernández is a member of the Steering Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Inclusive Economies initiative that creates private-public partnerships to ensure full economic participation in urban and rural communities. She is also a former member of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s Community Development Advisory Council and a former Corporator of Greenfield Cooperative Bank. She currently serves on the Board of the Mass Taxpayers Foundation.
Yves is a current member of the Board of Directors at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). She also serves on the Board of Double Edge Theater in Ashfield, Massachusetts and is a Trustee of Codman Academy in Boston. Dr. Salomon-Fernández is a former Chair of the Board of Mass Humanities and the American Council of Education’s Learner Success Lab Advisory Council.
Yves Salomon-Fernández earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. from Boston College. She is fluent in four languages. Most importantly, she is the mother to two teenagers and spouse to a loving husband.