Holley Nichols, Ph.D.
Senior Associate Director of Research
[email protected]Bio
Holley Nichols, Ph.D. is Senior Associate Director of Research at the Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research at NC State University. At the Belk Center she works on evaluations, reports and briefs related to topics such as the rural college leaders and advancing equitable transfer. Her research experience includes quantitative and qualitative methodologies with a focus on policies related to transfer students, adult learners, and rural student populations. Before working at the Belk Center, Holley worked for over a dozen years in university enrollment, financial aid, and admissions. Holley is originally from eastern North Carolina and earned her Bachelor of Arts degree at UNC-Chapel Hill, her Master’s in Education Administration from the College of William and Mary, and her Ph.D. from NC State University.
Publications
- Functional Pathways: The Workforce Necessity of AAS-to-Bachelor’s Transfer in Business , Association for Education Finance & Policy (AEFP) (2026)
- Accelerating the Path: How Compressed Scheduling Drives Success in Appalachia , Community Colleges of Appalachia Annual Conference (2026)
- Eight-Week Advantage: Improving Outcomes in Career and Technical Education through Half-Semester Scheduling , Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research (2026)
- Using Transcript Data to Examine Credit Applicability: Methodological Lessons Learned , American Educational Research Association (AERA (2026)
- Leading Innovation at Rural Community Colleges , Council for the Study of Community Colleges (2025)
- Applied Associate of Science Degrees: Pathways for Workforce and Transfer , Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research (2025)
- Building Evidence to Increase Rural Learner Success , Achieving the Dream (2025)
- Catalyzing Change through Innovation: Insights from the Rural College Leaders Program , Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research (2025)
- Redesigning the New Student Onboarding Experience , Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research (2025)
- Building Momentum Toward Degree Attainment through Contextualized English Courses , Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research (2024)