Seventh Annual Leadership Breakfast

Dr. Daisy Cocco De Filippis

Dr. Cocco De Filippis returned to Hostos Community College in August 2020 after serving as President of Naugatuck Valley Community College from July 2008 to August 2020. Prior to her presidency at Naugatuck, she served as Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs (2002–2008) at Hostos Community College. Now, since her return to the College as President and through a pandemic with ‘manos a la obra/all-hands-on-deck’ as her motto, Dr. Cocco De Filippis has continued to provide a high-quality education delivered with hope, care, and understanding to the students. During her presidency, author and philanthropist Ms. MacKenzie Scott announced a $15 million gift to Hostos, the largest donation the school has ever received. This was included in a large nationwide endowment for schools educating underserved students.

In her first year, President Cocco De Filippis hosted a successful Middle States Evaluation visit, which garnered thoughtful and collegial feedback from peer evaluators. In 2023, she concluded a College-wide Strategic Plan, effective 2023–2028. The Strategic Planning process included input from all Divisions of the College to design a powerful plan that is engaged and inclusive. The Strategic Plan, now in its second year of implementation, serves as a roadmap towards the ongoing fulfillment of the College’s mission. The President has also fostered the creation of a number of impactful initiatives, supported by Ms. MacKenzie Scott’s transformative gift to the institution, designed to support the education of students in the nation’s poorest congressional district. In the spring of 2023, she opened the Hostos Research Center, a space where faculty members from across disciplines create and explore new and ever-more-effective teaching methods, which, in turn, provides the optimum academic experience for students.

Under her leadership, the College recorded significant progress in fall-to-spring retention and marked growth in enrollment, bringing them back up to near pre-pandemic levels. With this kind of resilience and determination, it is no wonder Hostos was then selected for the second time as a top-ten finalist for the national Aspen Community College Prize.

Building on this momentum, Dr. Cocco De Filippis worked with local elected officials, such as Congressman Ritchie Torres, and submitted a successful $1 million congressional earmark in support of our students’ transfer opportunities and the successful celebration of the College’s 55th Anniversary year. And later that same year, State Senator Charles D. Schumer provided additional support in the form of $1 million to help sustain programs established with the Ms. MacKenzie Scott Gift. Additionally, in the fall of 2024, with the generous donation by Benny Lorenzo and Peter Wright, the College announced the creation of the $1 million Aspira-Wright Endowed STEM Scholarship, the largest in its history. Then, in January of 2025, in recognition of its tireless work lifting up underserved students, the College was one of only six schools in the nation to receive the U.S. Department of Education’s first-ever Postsecondary Success Recognition Program Award.

Dr. Cocco De Filippis holds a Ph.D. in Latin American Literature, an M. Phil in Spanish Literature from the Graduate School and University Center of The City University of New York, an M.A. in Spanish Literature and a B.A. summa cum laude in Spanish and English Literature from Queens College, CUNY. A published author and literary critic, she is recognized internationally as a pioneer in the field of Dominican women's studies and Dominican authors in the U.S. In 2016, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in the Humanities by the University of Santo Domingo (UASD), the oldest university in the Americas, in recognition of her contributions to Dominican, Caribbean, and Dominican Diaspora literatures.