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Download the President's Report, "Ten Years of Transformation" (PDF)
Dr. Ali Houshmand
Interim President
Dr. Ali Houshmand was educated in three countries, served in academia in the Midwest and on the East Coast and has been Rowan’s provost for almost five years.
He is serving as interim president of the University, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the school as its Board of Trustees conducts a national search for the next president of the highly ranked public institution. Dr. Donald Farish, who was named president in 1998, stepped down from the post in May 2011.
Born in Iran, where he attended primary and high school as an academic and athletic standout, Houshmand earned his bachelor’s (with honors) and master’s degrees in mathematics and mathematical statistics from the University of Essex, United Kingdom. He earned a second master’s degree and a doctoral degree in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
After earning his doctorate, Houshmand worked as a staff analyst for United Airlines, developing large-scale optimization and forecasting models.
From there, he began his career in academia, joining the faculty of the University of Cincinnati, where he went on to serve as director of graduate studies and acting director of the Industrial Engineering program. During that time, he tripled the number of graduate students in Industrial Engineering, established a comprehensive freshman retention program for the College of Engineering and developed a college-wide teaching effectiveness course, proven to significantly improve instructional quality. For three years, he was the director of student assessment for the College of Engineering.
He joined the Drexel University administration, where he served as associate provost for Academic Affairs, dean of the Goodwin College of Professional Studies and interim provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs. During his 18 months as provost, Houshmand oversaw 11 colleges and associated support services. He supervised the implementation of Drexel’s five-year strategic plan, achieving all specific first-year goals in the areas of research, budgeting, cooperative education, faculty development, undergraduate programs and student retention.
Houshmand joined Rowan University as provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs in September 2006. In that position, he established the College of Professional and Continuing Education (now the College of Graduate and Continuing Education) and hired its first dean; oversaw the restructuring of the summer school and graduate school as revenue-generating programs and created a University-wide revenue-sharing model; and established the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning. As leader of the Academic Affairs Division, he has focused his efforts on increasing the allocation of economic resources to the Division, reorganizing academic programs to optimize efficiency and effectiveness and fostering innovative and entrepreneurial initiatives to enhance revenue and better serve students.
The interim president is widely published in technical, business and academic fields, and he has received numerous competitive research grants and contracts throughout his career. His many awards include the American Creativity Association’s 2006 Champion of Creativity Award in part given for vigorous advocacy of programs that encourage creativity; Drexel University’s 2004 Joseph S. Mozino Blue and Gold Award for devoted service; and four faculty Honor Roll Awards from the University of Cincinnati in recognition of excellent teaching evaluations.
Houshmand lives in Glassboro with his wife Farah.
June 2011
