McNair is the vice president in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and executive director for the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, D.C. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices and student success. McNair also directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices. McNair currently serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives: "Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Centers," "Strengthening Guided Pathways and Career Success by Ensuring Students are Learning" and “Purposeful Pathways: Faculty Planning and Curricular Coherence.” McNair also oversees AAC&U’s yearly thematic conferences. She is the lead author of the books From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success. McNair is a co-author on the publication Assessing Underserved Students’ Engagement in High-Impact Practices. Prior to joining AAC&U, McNair served as the assistant director of the National College Access Network (NCAN) in Washington, DC. McNair’s previous experience also includes serving as a social scientist/assistant program director in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources at the National Science Foundation (NSF), director of university relations at the University of Charleston in Charleston, West Virginia; the statewide coordinator for the Educational Talent Search Project at the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission; and the interim associate director of Admissions and Recruitment Services at West Virginia State University. She has served as an adjunct faculty member at several institutions where she taught first-year English courses. McNair earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and English at James Madison University and holds a master’s degree in English from Radford University and a doctorate in higher education administration from George Washington University.
