Chancellor's Biography
John C. Cavanaugh
Dr. John C. Cavanaugh became chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, effective July 1, 2008. He serves as the chief executive officer of PASSHE, which operates 14 comprehensive universities with a combined enrollment of nearly 117,000 students. The chancellor works with the Board of Governors to recommend and develop overall policies for the State System.
From 2002 to 2008, Dr. Cavanaugh served as president of the 10,500-student University of West Florida in Pensacola. Among his accomplishments were creating the Academic Technology Center and being one of the original proponents of the Vince Whibbs Community Maritime Park (the largest public-private partnership in Pensacola history). He served as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington from 1999 to 2002. He also held various positions at the University of Delaware, including vice provost for academic programs and planning and associate provost for graduate studies.
While at the University of Delaware, Dr. Cavanaugh led a broad-based effort on teaching reform, securing a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts to enhance and expand problem-based learning. The university received a Theodore Hesburgh Award Certificate for Excellence in Faculty Development to Enhance Undergraduate Teaching for the effort. He also led the development of the nation’s first web-based graduate admissions processing system; in recognition, he and the development team won an award from the American Association of University Administrators for administrative leadership and innovation.
Dr. Cavanaugh began his academic career as an adjunct instructor of psychology at Indiana University at South Bend while completing work on his doctoral degree at the University of Notre Dame. His first permanent appointment was as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at Bowling Green State University in 1980. He held various appointments at Bowling Green, including head of the developmental psychology program and director of the Institute for Psychological Research and Application. He also was director for behavioral research at the Northwest Ohio Dementia and Memory Center at the Medical College of Ohio at Toledo for five years.
Dr. Cavanaugh attended St. Joseph’s College in Philadelphia before earning a bachelor’s degree in psychology with high honors from the University of Delaware in 1975. He also holds both a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Notre Dame, and served as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Research in Human Learning and the Institute of Child Development. He served as an American Council on Education Fellow in 1994-1995 and is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Divisions 1, 2, 3, and 20), a Charter Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.
He serves as Vice Chair of the Federal Relations Committee of the State Higher Education Executive Officers and as Vice Chair of the Policies and Purposes Committee of the America Association of State Colleges and Universities. Previously, he served on several boards, including the Marygrove College Board of Trustees and the Walt Disney World College Program.
He is married to Dr. Christine Kamenjar Cavanaugh, with whom he collaborates on issues in higher education and gerontology. He is an avid traveler and backpacker who enjoys cooking and photography, and is an avowed chocoholic.