Northeastern University President Joseph E. Aoun has been elected as chairman of the board of the American Council on Education (ACE), the largest organization representing college and university presidents and chancellors in the United States. Aoun officially assumed his role on Monday at the organization's annual meeting in Los Angeles.
Aoun, who will serve a one-year term at the 94-year-old organization, will replace former president Eduardo J. Padrón, the president of Miami Dade College in Florida. Aoun previously served as vice chairman of the board.
“American higher education is at a critical turning point,” said President Aoun. “Because of the excellence of our system, our efforts to innovate and expand higher education have captured the world's attention. I am honored that my colleagues have elected me as chairman of the board at a time of great challenge and opportunity.”
In his role as ACE president, Aoun will continue to champion the strength and diversity of America's higher education system, which he said “remains the envy of the world.”
“Joseph's advocacy on behalf of American higher education and his leadership at Northeastern give him a breadth and depth of knowledge and experience that will serve him well as chairman of the board of the American Council on Education,” said ACE President Molly Corbett Broad . “I look forward to a productive and exciting year ahead.”
Aoun was named president of Northeastern in 2006. Over the past six years, he has strengthened the university's leadership in experiential education anchored in Northeastern's signature collaborative program. He also took experiential learning worldwide, in 85 countries on all continents. His leadership has fostered an application-inspired research environment in which faculty can address real-world challenges, with a particular focus on the areas of health, safety and sustainability. Over the past five years, Northeastern's external research funding and philanthropic support have doubled.
Aoun is the recipient of the 2011 Robert A. Muh Alumni Award in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Earlier this month, Aoun was appointed to a 19-member academic advisory board for the US Department of Homeland Security.
