2023 Most Influential Women: Zora Mulligan

When Zora Mulligan was hired to the new position of executive vice president at Missouri State University in July 2022, she says she hit the ground running.

“The team I work with has renewed energy around one of the university’s most important key performance indicators – enrollment,” she says, noting the current class of first-year students is the largest the university has had in years.

One of Mulligan’s responsibilities is to establish a student success agenda, aimed at increasing retention rates for students.

Since arriving in Springfield, Mulligan has gotten busy, joining the board of the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce and its Legislative Policy Committee.

She is also a member of the boards of United Way of the Ozarks’ Women United, launching in 2024, and Jobs for America’s Graduates.

Mulligan was the state’s commissioner of higher education from 2016-22. In that role, she worked with three governors over the course of six years to develop and execute the state’s agenda for higher education and workforce development.

She also was executive director of the Missouri Community College Association from 2010-14, working with community college presidents and chancellors to develop shared priorities, including a legislative agenda. She also led statewide efforts, including collaborative grant-writing that brought $50 million in federal funding to Missouri to increase community college enrollment and support educational innovation.

As commissioner, she championed record investments in public higher education and collaborated with public and private sector partners throughout the state, and especially in Springfield, to implement workforce development programs. She also led the state’s colleges and universities through the COVID-19 challenges, including shutdowns, providing them with resources to reopen safely in fall 2020. In 2019, she was recognized as Governmental Partner of the Year by the Missouri Economic Development Council and 2021 Exceptional Leader of the Year by the national association that represents state higher education officers.

Mulligan said she genuinely cares about people at all levels of the organizations she has worked for, and she strives to be authentic.

“People often expect that someone with my professional background will be remote or stuffy, and I have been proud to show them over the course of my career that I am neither of those things,” she says.

She also cites her ability to use data to tell compelling stories about complex systems and solutions, as well as her ability to see the big picture, a skill developed through years of working on statewide issues.

But Mulligan thinks her resilience is her most important leadership trait.

“My career has been very rewarding, but it has also included some exceptionally challenging times,” she says. “The ability to lead through these high-profile, high-stress events with courage and grace is something that sets me apart from other professionals.”