Dr. Heather Adams

Dr. Heather Adams is the Director of Special Initiatives and a Transfer Student Success Consultant at Sova Solutions. Current projects include supporting the California Vision 2030: A Roadmap for California Community Colleges – a partnership between Governor Newsom and the California Community College System. Heather is advancing systems change in the state to remove barriers to transfer, including engaging faculty, administrators, staff, system, and government officials in implementing common course numbering across California's 116 community colleges.

In her previous role as Associate Director of Transfer Engagement at The Aspen Institute College Excellence Program, Heather led the development of transfer initiatives. Before joining Aspen, Heather served as Director of the UCLA Transfer Student Center and Director of UCLA College Learning Communities. She is also the founder of Transfer Nation, a peer-to-peer global learning community on transfer.

The core focus of Dr. Adams’s work has centered on generating institutionalized receptivity, support, and policy restructuring for historically marginalized student communities through strategic partnership and practice. Dr. Adams advocated for the establishment of the UCLA Transfer Student Center and transformed a program serving 300 students annually into a thriving and collaborative campus Center that provides numerous resources and support to over 27,000 transfer students annually.

A proud community college transfer student, Dr. Adams earned an A.A. in Psychology from Santa Monica College and transferred to UCLA, where she obtained a B.A. in Psychology and an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership.