National University Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance Honored as a San Diego Business Journal 2024 Woman of Influence

Michelle Bello’s leadership, financial expertise, and strategic vision cited in her selection

SAN DIEGO, CA (March 6, 2024)National University (NU) — a nonprofit Minority Serving Institution (MSI) that serves 50,000 degree-seeking students and 80,000 workforce and professional development students annually — today announced that NU Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance Michelle Bello has been honored as one of the San Diego Business Journal’s 2024 Women of Influence in Accounting & Finance

“Michelle truly deserves this recognition,” said NU Executive Vice President of Administration and Finance Dave Lawrence. “Her dedication, professionalism, and commitment to excellence have resulted in the success of numerous key initiatives at the university. She possesses a unique blend of financial expertise, academic heart, strategic vision, and exceptional leadership skills.”

Annually, the San Diego Business Journal celebrates female trailblazers in a variety of disciplines, including accounting & finance, by highlighting their careers and accomplishments.

“I’m honored and grateful to be chosen as one of our region’s women of influence,” Bello said. “I see this as acknowledgement of the greater mission of National University, an access innovator doing our very best to provide non-traditional, working, and military-affiliated students with quality programs and meaningful learning.”

In her 20 years at NU, Bello has collaborated on many key initiatives, including financial analytics for NU mergers and acquisitions. She successfully led the transition to a new employee resource planning software system, facilitated the issuance of a $170 million bond issue, and continues to lead the development and control of the university’s $430 million annual budget. She also acts as a liaison with investment advisors in managing the university’s more than $1 billion endowment.

In addition to her financial acumen, Bello is a caring leader and coach. She has a proven track record of building and fostering high-performing teams and collaborating across the organization. She also volunteers on the Audit Committee of San Diego Youth Services, a local non-profit serving homeless youth.

NU, which makes its headquarters in San Diego, serves students from throughout California, the nation, and the world in mostly online classes. Founded in San Diego in 1971 by a former U.S. Navy captain, NU boasts 230,000 alumni worldwide. 

NU is an access and success innovator with an extremely diverse student population of non-traditional and underserved learners from many walks of life, and approximately half of NU’s undergraduates are active-duty military, Veterans, and their dependents. NU is the largest conferrer of graduate degrees to minority students in the United States, with more than 50 percent of graduates being women. The university is the third largest conferrer of doctoral degrees overall. NU is one of the largest private MSIs and Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) in the United States. Two-thirds of NU students and graduates are Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC).

About National University: National University, a Veteran-founded nonprofit, has been dedicated to meeting the needs of hard-working adults by providing accessible, affordable higher education opportunities since 1971. As San Diego’s largest private nonprofit university, NU offers over 190+ online and on-campus programs with flexible four-week and eight-week classes and one-to-one graduate education models designed to help students reach their goals while balancing busy lives. Since its founding, the NU community has grown to 130,000 learners served per year—50,000 degree-seeking students and 80,000 workforce and professional development students—and 230,000 alumni around the globe, many of whom serve in helping industries such as business, education, health care, cybersecurity, and law and criminal justice. To learn more about National University’s new possibilities in education including next-generation education, value-rich education, and whole human education, visit NU.edu.

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