Dr. Barbara P. Mink has an extensive background in community college leadership, nonprofit board work, doctoral education, international organizational consulting, and professional writing.
Dr. Mink was elected to the Board of Trustees of Austin Community College District in 2000. She was re-elected in 2006, 2012, and again in 2018 for a fourth 6-year term. She is the only person in the 50-year history of the College who has served as the Chair of the Board four times.
In addition, she has taught and served as Dean at community colleges in North Carolina and Texas. She was a founding administrator of Austin Community College and was the subject of a chapter in “Indelible Austin: Selected Histories” by Michael Barnes titled ‘Behind Austin Community College from Day 1.’
Dr. Mink has also served multiple terms on the Board of Directors of the Austin Community College Foundation; she served as President of the Texas Association of Community College Trustees & Administrators, and served on the Board of Trustees of Fielding Graduate University where she was on the Board Committee for Diversity & Social Justice and on the Board Budget and Finance Committee. In addition to her higher education service, she has served on the Board of the ARC of the Capital Area which works with children and adults with intellectual disabilities.
She is a lifetime member of the Austin Area Urban League, the Austin Rodeo Association, and the Texas Association of Black Personnel in Higher Education. As co-founder of Elected Women of Central Texas, she convenes elected women to address issues facing Central Texas. As a volunteer with Global Austin, Mink hosts State Department visitors studying educational and human rights issues. In collaboration with the Navajo Nation, she organizes yearly conferences of educators to advance educational sovereignty of the Navajo Nation.
In addition to her career in higher education, she has done consulting work with global profit and nonprofit organizations. She was a founding Professor of the Human and Organization Development and Education doctoral Programs at the Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara, CA, where she facilitated learning in the areas of organizational change, leadership development, and adult learning for more than 40 years. She has also held a variety of senior administrative positions at Fielding.
Dr. Mink directed the integration of the Community College doctoral concentration at the University of Texas-Austin into their Program in Higher Educational Leadership. She was appointed as a Clinical Professor at the University of Texas. At UT she taught doctoral courses in Leadership; Organization and Administration of Higher Education; The History and Structure of the Community College; and Organization Design and Behavior. She developed the Innovation and Service Management graduate program for the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia.
Dr. Mink’s extensive international consulting experience with profit and nonprofit organizations has focused on leadership development, strategic planning and the design and implementation of organizational change. She has worked in over 45 states in the U.S. and internationally (Western Europe, Canada, Australia, Central and South America) with clients in the fields of manufacturing, health care, education, government, communications, natural resources, technology, and finance.
She has authored or co-authored ten books as well as numerous articles, workbooks, and assessment instruments on leadership, group development, organizational structure, mentoring and coaching, and organizational effectiveness. Most recently, she edited a publication exploring the future of Navajo education. All chapters were written by Navajo Nation leaders and educators.
Dr. Mink is the recipient of numerous honors including, election to Pi Mu Epsilon (mathematics honorary) and to the Board of Directors of the Human Resource Planning Society. While at the University of Texas she received one of the two awards given by the University of Texas for Service Learning. She was also selected to be one of 100 women in a Leadership Texas cohort to study statewide issues related to education, equity, and economic development.
Dr. Mink has a BS in Mathematics/Geology, an M.A.T. in Mathematics/Education, and an Ed.D. in Higher Educational Administration all from Duke University in Durham, NC. Her post-doctoral studies were completed at the University of Texas at Austin in Organizational Effectiveness. She completed Mediation Training at the University of Texas Law School and also has completed training in a variety of organizational, team and individual effectiveness instruments.
