ELON COLLEGE– Dr. Leo M. Lambert, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, was elected Oct. 13 as the eighth president of Elon College by the board of trustees.
He will succeed Dr. J. Fred Young, who retires Dec. 31 after 25 years of service. Lambert, who recently was named by Change magazine as an outstanding leader in American higher education, will begin his new duties Jan. 1.
(“Dr. Lambert possesses the academic and senior leadership experience which qualify him to lead this institution into the 21st century,” said Robert LaRose, chair of the board of trustees and a 1966 Elon graduate. “He has built an outstanding reputation as one of America’s top administrators and will foster a climate of excellence as we build on Elon’s reputation as one of the premier undergraduate institutions on the Eastern Seaboard.”
Lambert, 43, said he was honored to have been selected for the position and is looking forward to becoming a memeber of a dynamic college community.
“One of the factors that attracted me to the Elon presidency is the institution’s commitment to innovation in the curriculum and in teaching,” Lambert said. “It is the most improved institution in the state in the past 15 years and has visionary trustees, a creative faculty and staff and a talented student body.
“Elon is well on the way to defining something truly distinctive in higher education that requires and deserves greater visibility,” he said.
Lambert was nominated by a search committee, whose members included trustees, faculty, staff and the president of the college’s Student Government Association. The committee received 115 applications from higher education administrators and business executives nationwide.
“The search committee found many outstanding potential presidents,” said Noel Allen, a Raleigh attorney, who is chair of the committee and a 1969 Elon graduate. “Leo Lambert brings to Elon a unique combination of intelligence, experience, integrity and charisma.”
Lambert is a native of Scotia, N.Y., near Schenectady. He and his wife, Laurie, who is a reading and math teacher, have two daughters, Callie, 13, and Millie, 10.
He graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degreee in English from State University of New York at Geneseo, received a master’s of education from the University of Vermont in Burlington and was awarded a doctorate in education from Syracuse University.
In 1994, Lambert was named associate vice chancellor/dean of graduate studies at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, which has an enrollment of 8,500 and is one of the 13 four-year universities in the University of Wisconsin system. in 1996 he was named interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs and in 1997 he assumed those positions on a permanent basis. He also is professor of foundations of educational policy and practice at the university.
At La Crosse, he has been a strong supporter of international education and fostered student and faculty exchanges in China, Russia, Germany and Mexico. He also supported the establishment of a new undergraduate research program and is currently teaching in a freshman seminar program. He established a new academic discovery lab and a pilot peer advising program to improve student advising services.
Lambert has written extensively on university teaching and participated in several national projects related to teaching improvement. He is a member of the board of directors of the American Association of Higher Education. He is also co-editor of three AAHE volumes on school-college partnerships, the most recent of which is “Linking America’s Schools and Colleges.”
Prior to his work at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Lambert spent 12 years at Syracuse University, one of the nation’s leading private universities. He joined the university in 1980 as program evaluator for the Center of Instructor Development. He then served as associate director of Project Advance, and award-winning university partnership program with 90 high schools that provided the opportunity for talented seniors to take freshman-level courses. In 1988 he was named associate dean of the graduate school and director of the teaching assistant program. Five years later he was appointed acting dean.
While at Syracuse, Lambert established the Future Professoriate Project, which prepares graduate students to teach in higher education, with $1 million in support from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Educatino. The program was awarded a certificate of excellence in the Theodore M. Hesburg Prize competition for faculty development.
Lambert began his career in higher education as a lecturer at the University of Vermont in Burlington , and as assistant director and acting director of university’s Living/Learning Center, a unique facility supporting year-long educational programs designed either by faculty or students.
Lambert is active in the La Crosse community. He is on the board of directors for the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra and a member of the Downtown Rotary Club and First Congregational Church (United Church of Christ).
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