About Colleen
Colleen Fitzgerald, PhD, is senior vice provost for research and creative activities at Hofstra University, where she leads strategic initiatives to advance Hofstra’s research enterprise across disciplines and sectors. A seasoned research executive, Dr. Fitzgerald brings decades of experience in higher education, government, and community engagement.
She previously served as vice president for research and creative activity at North Dakota State University (NDSU), a land-grant university and Carnegie R1 institution. Under her leadership, NDSU experienced a dramatic rise in research expenditures and federal funding — including a $160 million award as one of nine inaugural NSF Regional Innovation Engines and a $14 million NSF Innovation (I-Corps) Hub grant. She also launched university-wide initiatives to foster interdisciplinary research, innovation, and strategic government relations.
Before NDSU, Dr. Fitzgerald was associate vice president for research at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi and served as program director for the National Science Foundation’s Documenting Endangered Languages program. A linguist by training, she has secured over $40 million in external funding as principal investigator and authored numerous scholarly works focused on language revitalization, phonology, and service-learning in linguistics.
Dr. Fitzgerald was recognized as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Linguistic Society of America for her scholarly work on revitalizing and documenting Native American languages. Her professional service includes membership on the executive committee for the Council on Research of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities and on the board for EPSCoR/IDeA Coalition. She is widely recognized for her expertise in building research capacity, community partnerships, and inclusive innovation ecosystems.
At Hofstra, Dr. Fitzgerald is committed to supporting faculty scholarship, expanding sponsored research, and growing the University’s impact through translational research and cross-sector collaboration.
Contact Colleen
Reach out to Colleen on LinkedIn or via email.
