William Pickens

Background

About William Pickens

My professional career has been devoted to administrative leadership, policy analysis, and action in higher education. My special expertise is in finance, budgeting, and human resources assessment/development. I have served as chancellor of a set of small colleges which specialized in digital arts and engineering, and as President/CEO of a large non-profit foundation that governed these colleges, that worked in many states to improve adult education, and that served developmentally disabled adults. I have been a business affairs administrator at a large State university and have held senior positions in California’s state agency charged with the general coordination of, and planning for, postsecondary education. For two years, I was a senior partner in a nationwide management consulting firm, having prime responsibility for the company’s higher education portfolio and activities in western states. For many years, my most satisfying experience was directing and teaching in a “total immersion” leadership institute at Stanford University, the ELMI. This week-long experience was among the nation’s premier professional development opportunities for college and university administrators.