President,
Columbia College Chicago
2025
Shantay N. Bolton, Ph.D., MBA, ODCP, became President and Chief Executive Officer of Columbia College Chicago on July 1, 2025. As the college’s 11th president, Bolton leads the institution in its mission to provide a comprehensive education in media arts, technology, and business, within a context of enlightened liberal education.
Dr. Bolton was most recently the Special Advisor to the President and Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance and Chief Business Officer at the Georgia Institute of Technology with responsibility for administrative policy development, oversight of the strategic enterprise and operational functions. Before this role, she served as the Executive Vice Chancellor and Chief Administrative Officer at Washington University in St. Louis, and as the first Vice President & Deputy Chief Operating Officer at Tulane University.
Dr. Bolton holds more than 20 years’ experience in business operations, human resources, leadership development, employee engagement, talent management, and strategic training projects through organizational change initiatives. She also provides thought leadership on generational differences in the workplace and coaching of multigenerational project leaders. As the creator of E3©: Engage, Educate, Empower an Action Learning Model for Employee Engagement and Coaching, she uses it as the foundation to build teams in government, corporate, higher education, and nonprofit industries. She is a two-time Titan 100 recipient (St. Louis and Atlanta), recognized for her “reputable, distinguished and highly preeminent” contribution to higher education and her community as a chief executive officer.
Dr. Bolton is a professional devoted to connecting theory to practical application through the building of human capital assets with recognized strengths in setting strategic direction and implementing initiatives that enhance organizational performance.
Dr. Bolton is a 2019 Aspen Economic Opportunities Fellow, Certified MBTI Practitioner, Certified Executive Coach (ICF-ACTP), Certified Business Coach (ICF-ACTP), Organizational Development Certified Professional and 6-Thinking Hats/Parallel Thinking Trainer. The founder of both the Tulane University Leadership Institute (TULI) and the Washington University in St. Louis Institute for Leadership Excellence (ILE). She holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University, a PhD in organizational psychology from Walden University (Industrial concentration), and an MBA in corporate business from Florida International University.
