Chandra Harris-McCray, Ph.D.
Chandra Harris-McCray, Ph.D. (she/her), Senior Consultant, is an award-winning strategist and equity-centered storyteller, who builds transformative marketing, communications, and storytelling systems that help institutions, organizations, and leaders elevate their impact with clarity, authenticity, and measurable results. Chicago-bred and purpose-driven, she has spent nearly 20 years architecting brand, engagement, and multichannel communications strategies that amplify voices often unheard and unlock deeper connection with diverse stakeholders.
Dr. Harris-McCray specializes in helping clients translate complexity into strategic direction—integrating data, story, audience insights, and organizational capacity to design solutions that actually work. Her approach is grounded in systems thinking, collaborative leadership, and the belief that storytelling can be a powerful instrument for equity, innovation, and change.
Her expertise is rooted in a distinguished career of inaugural and progressive leadership roles across major universities. She currently serves as vice chancellor for strategic marketing and communications at the University of Illinois Chicago. Previously, she launched and led philanthropic and alumni engagement marketing at the University of Colorado Boulder. At the University of Tennessee System and Foundation, she served as executive director and chief storyteller, optimizing constituent journeys and brand engagement for the university’s historic $1 billion fundraising campaign.
Before entering higher education leadership, Dr. Harris-McCray spent more than a decade as a journalist, editor, and newsroom leader across the Midwest and Southeast. Her storytelling excellence has been recognized by the Kaiser Foundation, the Poynter Institute, the Associated Press Managing Editors, Scripps, Society of Professional Journalists, the Tennessee Press Association, and national higher education and design associations including Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), the University & College Designers Association (UCDA), the Association of Governing Boards and Colleges (AGB), the Society of Publication Designers (SPD), and the American Advertising Federation.
Her consulting work reflects her ongoing commitment to inclusion, social justice, and legacy-building. She brings her research, lived experience, and strategic acumen to boards, community organizations, cohort programs, and leadership intensives—including the National Urban League, Goodwill Industries, the Women’s Philanthropy Institute, the Alliance for Better Nonprofits, and the Bioneers Cultivating.
