The Review Team bios

Dr. James L. Fisher
James L. Fisher is the most published writer on leadership and organization in higher education today. He has written scores of professional articles and has also been published in such popular media as The New York Times, The Washington Times, and The Baltimore Sun. The author or editor of nine books, his book, The Board and the President, “clearly established him as the nation’s leading authority on the college presidency,” wrote Michael Worth of George Washington University reviewing in Currents. His The Power of the Presidency was reviewed in Change magazine as “… the most important book ever written on the college presidency” and was nominated for the non-fiction Pulitzer Prize. His recent book, Presidential Leadership: Making a Difference, has been reviewed as “…a major, impressive, immensely instructive book, …a virtual Dr. Spock for aspiring or new college presidents, and …a must read for all trustees.” His newest book, Positive Power, is quickly gaining popularity throughout the United States and internationally:
“The modern Machiavelli…from Aegon to Zenix…persuasive and to the point,”
Baltimore Sun.
“There is definitely something happening with this book. We are out of stock already,”
National Book Network
His next book, The Entrepreneurial President, is scheduled for publication in 2003.

A registered psychologist with a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, he is President Emeritus of the Council for Advancement & Support of Education (CASE) and President Emeritus of Towson University. He is presently Professor of Leadership Studies at The Union Institute and University and a consultant to boards and presidents. He has taught at Northwestern, Illinois State, Johns Hopkins, Harvard, and the University of Georgia. He has worked with more than three hundred colleges and universities including Old Dominion, Alabama A&M University, Towson University, Eastern Washington University, Fayetteville State University, Florida Memorial College, Morgan State University, University of Louisiana at Monroe, Norfolk State University, Virginia State University and as a speaker for NAFEO and the United Negro College Fund. He coined the term institutional review and has conducted hundreds for private and public institutions.

Dr. Fisher has been a trustee at eleven private colleges and universities and two preparatory schools. A former Marine, he presently serves as a trustee of the Marine Military Academy, Millikin University, and Florida Institute of Technology. He has received awards for teaching, writing, citizenship and leadership and has been awarded twelve honorary degrees. At Illinois State, The Outstanding Thesis Award was named by the faculty The James L. Fisher Thesis Award. The faculty at Towson University recommended that the new psychology building be named after Dr. Fisher, and the CASE Distinguished Service to Education Award bears his name.

While president at Towson, his government relations activities were sufficient to overturn gubernatorial vetoes. The Baltimore Sun wrote that he was a “master educational politician….under his leadership, enrollment doubled, quality went up and costs went down.” In Washington, Newsweek magazine reported that, while President at CASE, his national campaign, The Action Committee for Higher Education (ACHE) resulted in “more than $1 billion in student financial aid.” CASE also created and orchestrated the “America’s Energy is Mindpower” campaign, “Higher Education Week” and “The Professor of the Year” awards. For several years, he did a popular daily radio commentary on WBAL in Baltimore and has been an occasional OP/ED feature writer for The Baltimore Sun. Through the years, Dr. Fisher has been encouraged by leaders in both parties to run for Governor or Senate.

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Dr. Herman D. James
When then Glassboro State College Board of Trustees selected Dr. Herman D. James to be the college’s fifth president in 1984, they saw in him a person of vision; a man whom they felt could also translate that vision into action.

Under his leadership, in July 1992 the college received the largest gift ever bestowed on a public institution of higher education: a $100 million gift from industrialists Henry M. and Betty Rowan. The gift fueled Dr. James’ vision to bring the college, now named in honor of its benefactors, to a position of leadership in southern New Jersey and throughout the state. He oversaw the development of a state-of-the-art College of Engineering and the initiation of the region’s first Doctoral Program. The author of Beyond 2000: The Rowan Vision, Dr. James was the force behind the vision for Rowan University becoming a high-value regional resource.

Since his appointment as president, more and more students are applying to Rowan for their education. The academic quality of the student body was significantly increased, with average SAT scores for incoming freshmen rising dramatically by over 200 points during the last 10 years. At the same time, the diversity of the students was also increased.

Dr. James’ personal and professional life reflects the same commitment to the pursuit of excellence. Born in the Virgin Islands and raised in Harlem, Dr. James attended Tuskegee University in Alabama, where he received a B.S. degree in education. He earned his M.A. in sociology at St. John’s University in New York, and his Ph.D. in the same field from the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. James taught at the University of Pittsburgh and then at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, where he was appointed associate provost in 1975 and, later, assistant chancellor. In 1978, he became vice provost and professor of sociology at California State University at Northridge. In 1982, he came to Rowan as vice president for academic affairs.

Dr. James is recognized as a national and regional leader in higher education. He has served on the governmental commission of the American Council on Education and on the Board of Directors of the Council for Aid to Education and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. He was vice chairman of the N.J. Presidents’ Council of N.J. Colleges and Universities. He was a member of the Board of Directors of the N.J. State Chamber of Commerce and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, and was an honorary trustee of the N.J. Symphony Orchestra. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of South Jersey Industries.

Dr. James served on the transition team for Governor-elect James Florio in 1989. He also served on the higher education advisory group for Governor-elect Christine Whitman in 1984.

He is the recipient of the Boston Metropolitan YMCA Outstanding Black Achiever Award, the Tuskegee Institute Alumni Testimonial and the Humanitarian Award of the Prince Hall Masons. In 1994, he received the Eileen Tosney Award from the American Association of the University Administrators as the outstanding university administrator for the year. In 1996 he received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Tuskegee University. In 1998, he received an honorary Doctors of Education from Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts.

Dr. James currently occupies the position of Distinguished Professor at Rowan University. He teaches and provides research leadership in two academic departments.

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Dr. James V. Koch
James V. Koch is Board of Visitors Professor of Economics and President Emeritus at Old Dominion University, Northfolk, VA. Dr. Koch served as President of Old Dominion 1990-2001. Prior to that, he was President of the University of Montana, 1986-1990. An Exxon Foundation study of American college presidents selected him as one of the 100 most effective college presidents in the United States. During his tenure at Old Dominion, the University recorded its first Rhodes Scholar, developed the largest televised, interactive distance learning system in the United States, and initiated more than $300 million in new construction.

Dr. Koch is an economist who has published seven books and 70 refereed journal articles in the field. His Industrial Organization and Prices was the leading text in this specialty for several years. The focus of his current research is the economics of e-commerce. He has taught at institutions ranging from Illinois State University to Brown University, the University of Hawaii, and the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. His Presidential Leadership: Making a Difference, co-authored with James L. Fisher, is regarded as the definitive work concerning college presidents and their boards. He has been individually or collectively involved in the assessment of more than 30 presidents and institutions of higher education.

Dr. Koch earned a B.A. degree from Illinois State University and his Ph.D. degree in Economics from Northwestern University. He has received three honorary doctoral degrees from universities in Japan and Korea and has received a host of honors from organizations such as the Urban League, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and several regional economic development agencies.

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Dr. Scott D. Miller
Scott D. Miller, 43, became President and DuPont Professor of Leadership Studies at Wesley College in 1997. Dr. Miller has directed the most extensive restructuring process in the institution’s 130-year history.

He has procured over $30 million in capital improvement funds for technology, science instrumentation, campus physical plant upgrade and renovations, expansion of the library and student recreation facilities, and deferred maintenance. Nearly $47 million has been raised during the past five years, earning the College accolades from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education Circle of Excellence Awards for Overall Fund-raising Improvement and Overall Fund-raising Performance. (He has raised over $110 million during his 21 years in higher education.) He has earned numerous national accolades for his work at Wesley and is featured in a new book entitled The Small College Guide to Financial Health: Beating the Odds (by Michael Townsley, NACUBO: Washington, D.C., 2002) and also Business Officer magazine (September, 2002: National Association of College and University Business Officers) as one of two “amazing turnaround” case studies.

Wesley’s enrollment has grown from 1,052 to 2,150; residential enrollment increased by 120 percent; and full-time students more than doubled. The curriculum has been expanded to include four graduate programs, a Center for Adult Studies, and three new intercollegiate sports have been added. In 1998, he was a co-founder of the first publicly funded charter school on a private college campus in the United States—a school that enrolls 547 students in grades 1-12. He has created distance learning partnerships involving West Virginia Wesleyan College, Eastern University, and Wesley Seminary. He is a co-founder of the Interamerican Consortium, an international collaborative of five American colleges and eight foreign institutions. When coupled with programs in The Wesley Collegiate Institute (pre-collegiate programs), total institutional enrollment has grown from 1,052 to 3,750 during Dr. Miller’s five years of service.

Prior to coming to Wesley, Dr. Miller served as the 16th president of Lincoln Memorial University (1991-97). He had been an administrator at LMU since 1984, having served as vice president for development and executive vice president before being named to the top post in 1991. He also held academic rank as Professor of Leadership Studies and is President-Emeritus at LMU.

Dr. Miller earned his B.A. from West Virginia Wesleyan College, M.A. from the University of Dayton, Ed.S. from Vanderbilt University, and Ph.D. in higher education administration from the The Union Institute & University. His doctoral dissertation, funded by Pew Charitable Trusts, was a landmark study on Appalachian institutional advancement. He has also completed post-graduate studies at Ohio University and Harvard University.

A native of Pennsylvania, Dr. Miller was a public information officer at West Virginia Wesleyan College, and Director of University Relations and Alumni Affairs at the University of Rio Grande (OH), prior to his appointment at LMU in 1984. He is also a former newspaper journalist for The Edinboro (PA) Independent, The Buckhannon (WV) Record and The Weston (WV) Independent. He is widely published in the area of history and higher education.

In addition to many national, state and local boards, Dr. Miller has completed a two-year term as honorary commander of the Dover Air Force Base and was selected by former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen to serve on the Joint Civilian Orientation Council. As a part of that program, he traveled around the United States with the Secretary of Defense and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff observing military installations. Last fall, he was one of eight college and university presidents nationwide appointed to the Secretary of Defense’s Education Roundtable. He is currently vice chair of the Council of Independent Colleges and serves on the Board of Directors of the American Council on Education’s Center for Adult and Experiential Learning.

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Mr. Eddie N. Moore, Jr.
Eddie N. Moore, Jr. assumed his position as the 12th president of Virginia State University on June 1, 1993. He brings to this position a wealth of administrative, fiscal, and academic management experience gained both in the public and private sectors. He served most recently as the Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

In 1971, Moore began his career in the private sector at the Gulf Oil Corporation. During his 14-year tenure with Gulf Oil, he rose through the ranks, and eventually began directing major components of the corporation’s accounting and budgeting functions. He entered the public sector in 1985 as the Assistant Comptroller for Accounting and Reporting for the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1988, he was selected to serve concurrently as both the University Comptroller for the College of William and Mary, and as the Treasurer of its Endowment Association. In 1990, Mr. Moore became the head of the Department of the Treasurer under Governor Lawrence Douglas Wilder. As the State Treasurer, he served as the head of the Department of the Treasury; he also served on 15 state boards and authorities that had oversight authority for over $20 billion of the Commonwealth’s assets.

Within the realm of academic management, President Moore has been very active. Committed to enhancing the quality of education and the availability of opportunities for college students, he serves on the Virginia Board of Agriculture and the Education Subcommittee of Richmond Renaissance. Also, he serves as a Board member and Chair of the Finance Committee of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), has more recently been re-appointed to the Board of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE), is Vice-Chair/Treasurer of the 1890 Council of Presidents and Board Member of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), serves on the Vantagepoint Funds Board, is a member of the Board of the Universal Corporation, Inc., is a Virginia Historical Society Board Member, and more recently he has been appointed to serve as a board member of the Virginia Center for Innovative Technology.

A native of Philadelphia, President Moore holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a certified public accountant in both Texas and Virginia. A Vietnam War Veteran, Moore served as an officer and received many honors. Also, he has earned several awards, including the 1995 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Legacy Award in the area of Education, and he holds an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree for leadership in public service, from Virginia State University. In 1999, he became the recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Pennsylvania State University, received the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Funds Leadership Award in October 2000 and in May 2001 he was the recipient of the Katz School of Business Alumni Award from the University of Pittsburgh.

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Dr. George A. Pruitt
Dr. George A. Pruitt has been President of Thomas Edison State College since 1982.

Prior to coming to the College, he served in executive leadership positions at Illinois State University, Towson State University, Morgan State University, Tennessee State University, and the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL). He is active in the formulation of educational policy nationally and within the State of New Jersey.

He has served as Chairman of the Council of New Jersey State College Presidents; Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning; member of three national commissions of the American Council on Education; Chairman of the Committee on Alternatives and Innovation of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities; and Advisor to the Kellogg National Fellowship Program of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Dr. Pruitt is currently Past Chairman of the Mercer County Chamber of Commerce, Trenton, New Jersey; a member of the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity, United States Department of Education. He sits on the Board of Directors of Sun National Bank; Rider University; Structured Employment Economic Development Corporation (SEEDCO), New York; and The Union Institute, Cincinnati, Ohio.

He has consulted widely in business and government, as well as within the higher education community. He has served in an advisory capacity to three Secretaries of Education under two Presidents of both parties. He is the recipient of three honorary degrees in addition to numerous awards, honors, and commendations. In a study of presidential leadership funded by the Exxon Education Foundation, Dr. Pruitt was identified as one of the most effective college presidents in the United States.