Ron Cole

Background

About Ron Cole

I am proud to serve as president at Allegheny College where I also served for seven years as provost and dean of the college and twenty years on the faculty. As president I lead the senior leadership team of the college to drive holistic student success and a relevant 21st century education. As provost I promoted data-informed change to improve student learning which led to curricular revisions in STEM and humanities fields and increased first-year student retention. I led strategic work to achieve operational savings while investing in new academic programs and advanced diversity of faculty and the curriculum with an interdisciplinary cohort program in race, gender, and social justice. While on the faculty I held leadership positions as department and natural science division chair, faculty moderator, a member of the Trustees diversity task force, and chair of faculty council, the faculty review committee, and finance and facilities committee. I have been a speaker on campus leadership for the Council of Independent Colleges division and department chairs workshop, given presentations in national venues on topics that include leading transformational change, crisis communication, global internships, community engaged learning, investing in language education, and the value of the liberal arts, and have served as chair of the Great Lakes Colleges Association Deans Council and as co-chair of the Annapolis Group Deans Program. As a teacher-scholar I have taught at all levels of the curriculum, received the Thoburn Award at Allegheny College for excellence in teaching, and established an active student-focused undergraduate research program in the geosciences with funding from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, and the American Chemical Society with over 100 published articles, book chapters, and conference presentations. Before my career in higher education, Cole worked in the environmental consulting industry. In my local community, I served as Treasurer and Board member of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Fund, am on the Corporate Board of the Meadville Medical Center, was a founding Board member of the Northwest Pennsylvania Investment Cooperative, served on the French Creek Economic Development Steering Committee, and volunteer with the French Creek Community Theatre and in local schools. I am a second degree black belt and certified instructor in Tang Soo Do and have played violin in concert performances of the Allegheny College Civic Symphony.