Dr Laura Colson

LAURA COLSON, Ed.D. serves as vice president for Academic Affairs at Bennett College. As the chief academic officer, Dr. Colson provides academic vision and strategic planning that foster active, engaged, and distinctive learning experiences for women of color who aspire to leadership in their fields, social justice, civil rights, and social mobility. She charges herself with building alliances with external partners that foster student academic success outcomes, and enhance the student experience with internships, experiential programs, and student employment. As a result of almost 20 years of experience in higher education, she was selected as a cohort member of the 2020 American Association of State Colleges and Universities' (AASCU) Millennium Leadership Initiative (MLI), created to help prepare traditionally underrepresented groups for university and college presidencies and chancellorships.

She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Education from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Education degree in Curriculum and Supervision from The University of North Carolina at Charlotte. In the spring of 2013, she successfully defended and published her dissertation entitled: “First-Generation Freshman College Students: Factors Impacting Retention for the Subsequent Year” to complete a Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Instruction from Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

Dr. Colson is a servant leader within her community where she is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Friendship Missionary Baptist Church, and an entrepreneur. She also dedicates her time serving as a board member with the Ada Jenkins Center in Davidson, North Carolina. After experiencing four of the five most stressful events in life simultaneously, she was moved to launch her own ministry, My Big E.G.O. Life, LLC, (www.mybigegolife.com) a platform used to share her life experiences ordained by God and to assist others with experiencing a transformation of restoration of mind, body, and soul through life coaching and motivational speaking. This led to the publishing of her debut book, Restore the Joy: A Transformation Through Confirmation. Leading one company and co-founding two others, she has been recognized in Who’s Who in Black Charlotte (2017), and by Pride Magazine as one of the “2016 Women to Watch in Education”. She was the recipient of the Excellence in Education Award (June 2016) from the Charlotte chapter of the National Women of Achievement, Inc. She resides in Huntersville, North Carolina with her three beautiful children.