May 14, 2007

New president selected for Edinboro University of Pennsylvania

Contact: Kevin Hensil, khensil@passhe.edu

Dr. Jeremy D. Brown, provost and vice president for academic affairs at State University of New York at Canton, has been selected to serve as the next president of Edinboro University of Pennsylvania.

The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s (PASSHE) Board of Governors made the selection today at the conclusion of a national search. Dr. Brown will begin his tenure at Edinboro on July 1. He will replace Dr. Frank G. Pogue, who has served as the University’s president since July 1996. Dr. Pogue will retire in June.

Dr. Brown was named provost at SUNY-Canton in 2003. Previously, he served for three years as rector of Florida State University-Panama. He began his academic career as an assistant professor in the Physics Department at Princeton University in 1984.

“Dr. Brown will bring to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania a distinguished record as both an educator and administrator,” said Board of Governors Chairman Kenneth M. Jarin. “He is an excellent choice to lead Edinboro into the future.”

PASSHE Chancellor Dr. Judy G. Hample called Dr. Brown “a talented leader who will serve both Edinboro and the Commonwealth well.”

“Following the leadership of President Frank G. Pogue, Edinboro University is poised to write a new chapter under Dr. Brown, who will make an exceptional president,” said Harry Thomas, chairman of Edinboro University's Council of Trustees. “Dr. Brown has the experience and the vision to position the University for great success in the 21st century.”

Dr. Brown said he is looking forward to assuming the Edinboro presidency.

“I am absolutely delighted and am looking forward to meeting the challenges that are facing all of higher education,” he said. “I am looking forward to being part of the success story. On July 1, I will be hitting the ground running.”

As provost at SUNY-Canton, Dr. Brown serves as the 2,600-student university’s chief academic officer. He developed a strategic planning council, implemented a plan to introduce distance education to the campus and cultivated international collaborations in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and Asia.

Dr. Brown earned both a Bachelor of Arts and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Birmingham, England.

He served on the faculty at Princeton for seven years, where he taught both undergraduate and graduate level physics courses. From 1987 to 1992, he also served as a resident faculty fellow at Rockefeller College and was the faculty liaison for academic and social programs.

Dr. Brown was named associate dean of the Graduate School at Yale University in 1992, and also served as a lecturer in the University’s Physics Department for three years. He supervised, developed and implemented policies in 24 departments and programs in the sciences, including the medical school. He administered more than $30 million in financial aid and served as the chief budget officer for tuition and aid, overseeing an annual budget of more than $60 million.

In 1995, Dr. Brown returned to Princeton as associate dean of the faculty, where he advised the dean of faculty and provost on long-range academic planning and budgeting. He also supervised appointments, promotions, salaries and personnel issues for the 960 members of the technical, research and library staffs. Dr. Brown was named rector of Florida State-Panama in 2000, serving as the chief executive officer of a small U.S. university operating in Latin America. While he was there, enrollment increased by 40 percent, revenues doubled and a number of new programs were introduced.

Dr. Brown has published more than 100 scholarly articles and has been an invited speaker at international conferences, research institutions and universities. He served as a visiting scientist at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa, the University of Manitoba, the Department of Nuclear Physics at Oxford University and the National Accelerator Centre in Cape Town.

Founded in 1857, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania enrolls approximately 7,700 students, including about 1,100 graduate students. It offers 78 undergraduate and 18 graduate degree programs and employs about 400 full- and part-time faculty.

With more than 109,000 students, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth.The 14 PASSHE universities offer degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. Approximately 405,000 PASSHE alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.

The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock, and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. PASSHE also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Freeport, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg.