After thirty years working on two college campuses– first as Vice President of my alma mater Swarthmore College outside Philadelphia, then as President of Oglethorpe University in Atlanta– it has been my privilege to serve as President of the New England Commission since 2020. While I certainly miss being part of a campus community, I can’t imagine a better job than being part of the NECHE team that works closely with over 200 extraordinarily diverse institutions. To me, that very diversity makes our work compelling, inspiring, and impactful.

NECHE is proud to accredit both two and four-year institutions; public and private; schools with as few as twenty students and schools with 150,000; institutions in big cities and tucked away in the most rural of regions; schools in Vermont and New York and others in Lebanon and Greece; stand-alone law schools and schools of optometry. Our list of member institutions could go on and on.

Despite this diversity, NECHE through its peer review system applies the same standards of excellence to every one of our institutions, driven by each school’s unique mission. To those who might think accreditation is therefore a stagnant un-changing process, that could not be further from the truth. NECHE has evolved significantly over our nearly 140 years of service and, of course, the pace of change in the last decade has been even more noteworthy. This ever-evolving and thoughtful responsiveness to the needs of our institutions is what has drawn me to NECHE, enhanced by the personal touch the NECHE staff has always been known for.

You can experience a snapshot of my national and international travels to the campuses of our members (and aspiring members) at NECHE On The Road, and I think you’ll quickly understand why I am so proud to serve this renowned organization.