Cheryl L. Hyman
Chancellor, City Colleges of Chicago
Profile
Chancellor Cheryl Hyman’s number one priority is student success. Her vision for the City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) is to build a world-class institution that prepares students to compete and win the jobs of today and tomorrow. As Chancellor of the City Colleges, Cheryl Hyman is a member of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s Cabinet and is responsible for managing a budget of more than $650 million, overseeing nearly 5,800 employees, and ensuring the success of 120,000 students annually. She is leading the Reinvention of Illinois’ largest community college system in partnership with faculty, staff, students, and civic and business communities to ensure that all CCC students successfully graduate career-ready.
Recent Accomplishments
During her tenure at City Colleges, Chancellor Hyman has boosted student success through academic reforms and increased efficiency through operational improvements. Under her leadership, notable accomplishments include:
- An increase in the graduation rate which is now up to 11 percent, the highest in more than a decade.
- New enrollment is up five percent and transfer agreements have been signed with a number of four-year institutions including the Illinois Institute of Technology, the University of Illinois-Chicago, DePaul University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
- A five-year agreement with our full-time faculty union that includes up to one percent of their salary per year being awarded for performance pay based on student outcomes. In addition, City Colleges reached a new labor agreement with AFSCME that links up to eight percent of our adult education instructors' compensation to progress toward state achievement goals.
- CCC has saved $41 million in operations costs over the last two years and has implemented new business and accounting standards, including zero-based budgeting.
- Under Mayor Emanuel’s leadership, City Colleges launched College to Careers, an innovative program that works to partner CCC faculty and staff with corporations and local businesses to better prepare students for careers in growing fields and help increase the competitiveness of Chicago’s companies by providing them with a highly skilled workforce.
- To date, dozens of companies and organizations have become partners. In addition, a $2 million fund has been established to support CCC graduates in their first month of new employment and one of the partners, Allscripts, has already hired 40 graduates through this initiative.
- The employee benefits liability has been reduced by more than one million dollars per year. Reforms include ending sick day payouts for new non-union hires, ending free premium health care for senior City Colleges leaders, rescinding free lifetime retiree healthcare for current senior leaderships, and freezing sick day payouts for current non-bargained employees.
- City Colleges has launched a $520 million capital plan that will include academic enhancements at all seven colleges, including a new $250 million Malcolm X College campus and a new $42 million TDL Center at Olive-Harvey College, in support of College to Careers.
Professional History
Prior to being appointed Chancellor in April 2010, Hyman served as Vice President of Operations Strategy and Business Intelligence at ComEd, an Exelon company. She joined ComEd in 1996 and held positions across the company during her 14-year career, including Information Technology, Transmission and Distribution, and Government & Legislative Affairs.
Hyman was active in Exelon’s African-American Members Association (EAAMA) and was instrumental in ComEd’s corporate sponsorship of the Black Star Project, which brings EAAMA members to local schools to promote and reinforce the importance of education. She also serves as the Chairman for the Black Star Project Advisory Board.
Civic Involvement & Speaking Engagements
Hyman serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the national advocacy organization Complete College America (CCA), the Washington DC-based non-profit organization leading America’s effort to improve college graduation rates. In addition, Hyman has been sworn in under the State of Illinois as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for abused and neglected children who are wards of the Juvenile Court. Hyman is a former Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Night Ministry, which connects with Chicago's vulnerable youth and adults, providing basic supplies, self-care supplies, free healthcare, housing and supportive services for youth, and referrals to other resources.
Hyman is often called to discuss the community college reform movement and has served as a panelist at The Hamilton Project and the Center for the American Progress’s “The Future of American Jobs Part II” discussion at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. (2010), NBC News’s Education Nation Summit in New York City (2011), the National Journal’s Educating for Success: The Nexus Between College Completion and American Competitiveness in Washington D.C. (2011) and at the Aspen Institute 2011 Ideas Festival.
Education
Chancellor Hyman was once a City Colleges student herself: she is a graduate of Olive-Harvey College. She went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from the Illinois Institute of Technology, a Master of Arts Degree in Community Development from North Park University, and an Executive Master of Business Administration from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Chancellor Hyman is a Chicago native who grew up on the city’s West Side.