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Zenia Henderson

Chief Program Officer

Pronouns: She/Her/Ella

As NCAN’s Chief Program Officer, Zenia Henderson is responsible for implementing NCAN’s member engagement and retention strategy and building the capacity of those members through professional development, support services, and networking opportunities. She helps develop and vet tools, resources, and effective practices most valuable for practitioners in the field of postsecondary attainment.

Before joining NCAN, Henderson served as the Senior Director of Programs for NCAN member CollegeTracks in Montgomery County, MD, where she provided strategic and data-driven programmatic oversight of the college access and success programs operating in several Montgomery County Public High Schools.

With over 15 years in the nonprofit sector, Henderson has an extensive background in the field of college access, persistence and completion. Her firsthand experience as a first-generation college graduate led her to pursue endeavors with organizations that afford first-generation and students from low-income backgrounds the opportunity to pursue higher education, such as with NCAN member College Summit, now PeerForward, where she worked regionally and nationally to recruit volunteers for seven regions across the country. In addition to her work as a certified youth facilitator with PeerForward, she has a range of experience in leadership development, nonprofit management and direct service experience with various nonprofit and federal programs such as the Latin American Youth Center and Communities in Schools as well as Trio programs such as Student Support Services and Upward Bound.

Henderson completed her undergraduate studies with a bachelor’s degree in English and Ethnic Studies from the University of Colorado at Boulder and holds a master’s degree in Organizational Management from Trinity Washington University. She lives in Maryland with her husband and two sons.