Dear NACUA Colleagues,
The Board of Directors is very pleased to announce by unanimous vote the appointment of Ona Alston Dosunmu as NACUA’s next President & CEO, effective Monday, September 20, 2021. Ona will succeed Kathleen Curry Santora, who is retiring in September after leading NACUA for twenty years.
Ona currently serves as the CEO and Executive Director of the California Lawyers Association based in Sacramento, CA. She previously served in various roles at The Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, a nonprofit public policy organization, for more than 16 years, among them as Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary and as its Chair of the Inclusion & Diversity Committee. Ona established the first Office of General Counsel at Brookings. In addition to her role as Vice President & General Counsel, she served as its Interim Chief Operating Officer. Her initial position was as Associate Director of Budget and Administration for its Foreign Policy Studies program. Prior to Brookings, Ona held positions with major law firms throughout the country earlier in her career.
Ona holds a B.A., cum laude, in Journalism, and an M.A. in Sociology, both from Howard University; She holds her J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center.
Ona’s vast and rich experience in the areas of nonprofit management, board governance, finance, policy and program development, volunteer and member relations, and continuing legal education, as well as her service to organizations and foundations related to public policy and higher education, coupled with her professional and personal commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion, make her the ideal choice to lead NACUA as its next President & CEO. We know she will do so with distinction in this challenging yet exciting environment for higher education attorneys.
The NACUA that Ona will be leading is far different from the one that Kathleen Santora joined as President & CEO twenty years ago. During Kathleen’s leadership, NACUA has thrived by providing incomparable member service while extending its influence beyond the higher education bar. NACUA has become the premier source on higher education legal issues and an essential part of the higher education and law-related association community. Over the summer, Ona and Kathleen will be working together to ensure a seamless and effective transition for NACUA.
The appointment comes after a comprehensive national search, led by NACUA’s President & CEO Search Committee, and supported by Major, Lindsey & Africa. We wish to thank the members of the search committee for such a thorough and effective search process; the NACUA membership is indebted to each of you.
Best Regards,
