Champion of the Student Underdog: The Life and Times of Dr. Lisa Cooper Wilkins
By John R. Adkins
From the front stoop of a small brick home in North Philadelphia, a young girl’s gaze fell on white columns glinting in the afternoon sun that harkened back to the days of ancient Greece. Acres of well-manicured green spaces, arranged with picturesque collegiate architecture, appeared to reach out from around a stone wall to tempt the fate of a young Lisa Cooper Wilkins as she dreamt of what she might one day become.
Wilkins didn’t know for certain what path her career might take, but one thing was sure: for as long as she could remember — she would be going to college.
Dr. Lisa Cooper Wilkins was appointed the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at City College in 2020. In the years since, the college has seen a revolving door of chancellors and struggled with its decline in enrollment. Now faced with future deficits, the college leans on Wilkins’ optimism within Student Affairs as the most important aspect of its financial stability. Like many colleges and universities, the students at City College are both the customer and the product.
The Guardsman had the opportunity to sit down with her for an in-depth conversation about how she came to be where she is today and how she continues to strive to uphold her values for the campus community.
Humble Beginnings
Wilkins is a first-generation college student and the only daughter from a family of five children, all raised by a single mother. Wilkins’s mother, Flora, wanted the chance to become a nurse but had to forgo college to join the workforce and support her family. When it came time to raise a brood of her own while earning factory wages, she stressed the importance of education to all her children so they might one day have the opportunities that Flora could only dream of.
But it was in the mind of her only daughter that she instilled the hope of one day attending medical school. “I used to joke that my first full sentence was ‘I want to be a doctor’, my mother would turn to me as a little girl and say, ‘You want to be a doctor, right honey?’” Wilkins remarked.
After growing up on College Avenue across from the Girard College campus, there was no question it was college where Wilkins had set her sights; and college where she would eventually find her home.
Although this vision of higher education was always ingrained in her mind, Wilkins regrets all that she didn’t know about the many pathways to becoming a first-generation student. The thought of going to a community college or state school to save on costs never entered her mind. “When you’re first generation, there’s so much that you don’t know, you don’t even know what questions to ask.”
Wilkins attended the notoriously competitive Philadelphia High School for Girls, where she graduated Suma Cum Laude with a 4.5 GPA taking AP classes. Despite this, she only learned about the AP tests by overhearing a conversation in the bathroom. “I thought, ‘How could I have not known about this?’ It occurred to me later that it was probably because my family was homeless at the time, so I probably missed it in the mail sent to our old address.”
Despite the trauma of her family having to rotate through the couches of relatives during her junior and senior high school years, Wilkin’s mother was always there with unwavering faith that her children would attend college and have successful careers. However, at the university level, Wilkins quickly realized medical school was not for her and secretly changed her major in fear of disappointing her mother.
The Road to City College
In her professional career, Wilkins found within herself the desire to help support others through the education process and connect them to resources they may not have otherwise known were available — thus leading her back to school to obtain a master’s degree in counseling. While studying for her Master’s, she met someone who worked in a Student Support Services Program designed to help students be successful in college who might be from low-income backgrounds or first-generation college students. “I was like, Wait, first generation? That’s me, right? I didn’t have any of those things in college!”
By virtue of continuing to follow her passion, Wilkins started her pathway into higher education, kickstarting a career of helping students who need more access and support to complete their educational journey.
She worked in the Student Support Services Program at Drexel University, where she started a peer mentoring program and worked with students with disabilities shortly after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and in Student Affairs at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., where she was in charge of creating a program for African American students.
Wilkins recalled moments where she caught her students poised to sign off on private loans to the tune of $30,000 to cover tuition and living expenses for their freshman year of college alone. “I had a moment where I reached my threshold for watching students not finish for financial reasons,” Wilkins said.
“The whole financial literacy factor is so important and can be a game changer for families. I would like to see it discussed more at the high school level. Families who are low-income or first-generation like myself just don’t know what their choices are and deserve an opportunity to make an informed choice.”
In 2020, Wilkins was appointed the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs at City College. Today, she oversees Enrollment Services, Outreach and Community Partnerships, Student Success, Engagement, Wellness and Student Equity programs. Wilkins said being “Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs” was an opportunity to think holistically about the student experience. When she first arrived at City College, she talked to almost everyone she could in and out of the division to find out what it was known for and what the “pain points” were.
She described her department as having a “co-curricular relationship” to academic affairs due to the learning experience inside and outside the classroom. “The services we offer all have a role to play in helping the student develop while they are here. I talk about our work being a whole-person endeavor because there are multiple aspects to yourself, and many of the things we offer help develop the student’s many facets.”
Interim chancellor Mitchell Bailey recognized Wilkins as a student-centered leader.
“She clearly lives her values and creates an environment that is welcoming, supportive and collaborative. She is a valued colleague and campus leader that shares her joy in supporting and developing students with our whole college,” Bailey said.
What does it mean to be a student affairs division? Wilkins explained that to her, it means bringing people together to help them understand her team’s important role in shaping the student experience.
She always seeks to engage with as many student voices as possible to inform her process. “Sometimes we rely very heavily on our associated students to make sure that we have representation, especially in our Participatory Governance structure,” said Wilkins.
The Participatory Governance Council
In 1988, California passed Assembly Bill 1725, a community college reform legislation requiring the Board of Trustees at community colleges to consult with a participatory governance system. At City College, the Participatory Governance Council (PGC) includes representatives from faculty, staff, and students and serves as a way for the community to make recommendations directly to the chancellor.
Wilkins was appointed chair of the PGC in 2021, shortly after she started working at City College. Council members have commended her work for the committee and the positive changes she introduced.
“She has been diligent in upholding our community standards and sets a clear example for all members to follow,” said Classified Senate President Michael Snider. “We appreciate her leadership and dedication.”
According to Dr. Wilkins, the council, which she so earnestly oversees, is the mechanism by which anyone can contribute to what’s happening at the college. Members appointed by their respective constituency groups — the Academic Senate, Administrators Association, Classified Senate, SEIU, and the Associated Students — all have a role in making recommendations that go directly to the Chancellor.
“I think the PGC is meant to be an important place where people’s voices do get heard. People can come and make public comments, whether they are officially a part of PGC or not,” Wilkins said.
Despite not many students being aware of the PGC, Wilkins noted that every critical decision will eventually make its way through the council. “It’s important for me to create space for people to feel like their engagement matters.”
She stated that the discussions in the PGC are vital to City College’s ability to be transparent and proactive in sharing information.
The Road Ahead
As City College plunges ahead into an uncertain future, Wilkins’ mission is to elevate the work happening across all areas of the college and support those areas with the resources they need.
“The college has a history of enduring difficult times. And part of the thing that has held folks together is the continued focus on students and student success. If that continues to happen, it will help the college move forward together as a community.”
Wilkins mentioned that when speaking to student affairs professionals in her department, she stresses the importance of understanding student’s developmental process.
“By knowing the things that often cause students to leave college, you can back-engineer an environment that includes the things that they need support with,” she explained.
Wilkins said that the college’s success depends on how well it engages with the students and ensures their integration into the campus community, saying this was all part of the college’s natural ethos.
“How do we ensure students feel a sense of belonging, feel supported and connected to things?”
Her philosophy is that by keeping people focused on engaging with the students and helping them transition to City College, the college will maintain its overall health and longevity.
“A lot of our challenges are budget challenges, but I think if we can stay true to who we are as an institution, no matter what changes are underway, that will keep that City College spirit,” said Wilkins. “This is a special place. It’s so integrated and tied to the city and what it means to be in San Francisco.”
By helping low-income and first-generation students make more informed choices and emphasizing the importance of financial literacy, she hopes to fulfill the same role her mother fulfilled for her, but in a more direct way.
“People shouldn’t have to find out things by accident,” she added, like overhearing about AP tests in a bathroom stall.
Continuing Her Mother’s Legacy
Wilkins established a scholarship in her mother’s name in 2014 at San Joaquin Delta College, where she worked as Vice President of Student Affairs; and where her mother took classes later in life to finally achieve her own goal of attending college.
The Flora Ruth Wilson Memorial Scholarship is awarded to students studying to enter the nursing profession.
Although Wilkins did not live out her mother’s dream of becoming a doctor in the medical field, she completed her doctoral studies at George Washington University in Higher Education Administration. Her dissertation was entitled “Disability as Diversity: Assessing the Perceptions of Students with Physical Disabilities Regarding Access and Equal Opportunity in Postsecondary Education.”
She dedicated this dissertation to her mother:
“Mom, it is with great pride that I tell you that completing this milestone would not have happened without your support. I want you to know that you are my ‘shero’, and I hope that I will someday have even a modicum of the confidence, resilience, and wisdom that I witness in you every day. Knowing that I will never be able to repay this debt of gratitude, I extend my most heartfelt thanks to you. I love you for who you are and the person you have helped me to become,” wrote Wilkins.
She gave her mother a copy of the dissertation and graduation certificate to frame along with her tassel. “I wanted her to know what a big part she played in me making it this far. I told her, ‘This degree belongs to you as much as it belongs to me.’”
“The people you admire, you imagine they’re so much better than you at all the things you admire about them. Even when she didn’t have a lot to give, my mother was giving in all the ways that she could. I can’t remember a time when I was growing up where she wasn’t getting somebody a meal or having someone stay at our house for a few days when they needed it,” Wilkins recalled.
Dr. Wilkins hopes to one day establish another scholarship in her mother’s name at City College.
“I used to always say that I wanted to become half the person that she was because she was such a kind and giving person, even in the face of adversity.”