Chontrese Doswell Hayes is the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs in the Graduate School at Howard University.   Her portfolio includes campus-wide graduate student recruitment, admission, enrollment, and retention; as well as, graduate student development, and monitoring student progress and success.  She coordinates the Graduate School’s responsible conduct of research training sessions; merit-based financial support and honors fellowship programs; and professional development initiatives, as well as the Hood Presentation Ceremony honoring the Graduate School’s Master’s and Ph.D. degree candidates.    As assistant dean, she has worked to enhance the quality of graduate student life and advocate for policies designed to strengthen graduate education.   She is the advisor to the Graduate Student Council, the Edward A. Bouchet Graduate Honor Society, and the HU National Black Graduate Student Association.

Dr. Hayes has held numerous leadership positions in national graduate education initiatives including chair of the National Name Exchange, a consortium of nationally known institutions invested in the process of enhancing the number of talented students of color pursuing graduate degrees.  She is a founding member of the Bouchet Graduate Honor Society established with Yale University to promote excellence and diversity in doctoral education and the professoriate.

She has served as the Co-PI for Howard University’s Ph.D. Completion Project funded by the Council of Graduate School’s to implement and evaluate strategies to increase doctoral student retention.   Dr. Hayes is also a member of the Graduate Record Examination Board’s Minority Graduate Education Committee for the Educational Testing Service.

Prior to her appointment at Howard, she served as the Director of the Office of Graduate Recruitment, Retention and Diversity at the University of Maryland, College Park.   At Maryland, she worked to implement innovative programs to enhance the University’s goals to foster a more inclusive environment. Dr. Hayes received a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and master’s and Ph.D. from Howard University.