Leadership in Education

Lorna Duphiney Edmundson, Ed.D., President Emerita of Wilson College, is recognized as an effective leader, fundraiser, and facilitator of sustainable growth and change in higher education. Dr. Edmundson helps educational institutions build on their distinctions; strengthen finances and planning; create ethnic, racial and gender equity; encourage women and students of color to pursue the sciences; diversify and internationalize campuses; and forge international partnerships. She served as President of Wilson College from 2001-2011 and has held leadership roles at Columbia University, the American University of Paris, Marymount College, Trinity College, and Colby Sawyer College. Dr. Edmundson was honored with the Athena International Leadership Award, an Honorary Degree from Rhode Island College, and an Honorary, Lifetime Membership in Rotary International. She is featured among Asian and U.S. leaders in Women at the Top, by Cheung and Halpern.

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Mildred García, Ed.D., is the incoming president of California State University, Fullerton, and currently serves in that capacity at CSU Dominguez Hills, where she has been since 2007. She is the first Latina president of the CSU system. During her tenure, García has cut costs, boosted enrollment, increased student graduation rates and expanded fundraising. She facilitated the first endowed professorship, the Wallis Annenberg Endowed Professor for Innovation in STEM Education.

García is a scholar in the field of higher education, and her research and publications have concentrated on equity in higher education and its impact on policy practice. She is a much sought-after speaker at national and international conferences, and serves on the boards of many higher education organizations.

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Dario A. Cortes, Ph.D., is President of Berkeley College, an accredited college offering Associate and Baccalaureate degree programs in eight locations in New Jersey and New York, as well as Berkeley College Online. Berkeley College was established in 1931. Dr. Cortes is an accomplished author, lecturer, and conference leader. He has held increasingly senior-level positions including President and Executive Director of the American School Foundation, A.C. (ASF), Mexico City. He was Vice President for Academic Affairs at the Fashion Institute of Technology, SUNY; Dean at Fairleigh Dickinson University and Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Research at the University of Maryland College Park.

He serves on numerous community and non-profit boards including the New Jersey Council of Presidents; the Boys & Girls Club of Paterson and Passaic, NJ; and Hispanic Education Technology Services.

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Professor Deborah A. Freund is the 15th President of Claremont Graduate University (CGU) and is an internationally known health economist and outcomes researcher. She is particularly known for her work on total knee replacement and Medicaid. She brings extensive administrative experience to her service as president of Claremont Graduate University. Freund was vice chancellor and provost at Syracuse University from 1999-2006, and held the title of Distinguished Professor of Public Administration and Economics from Syracuse’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs beginning in 2004. In addition to her faculty position at the Maxwell School, she was a senior research associate at the school’s Center for Policy Research. She came to Syracuse University from Indiana University Bloomington (IU) where she was vice chancellor and dean of the faculties, and special advisor to the president and vice president of the IU System on Academic Affairs for five years.

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Lynda M. Sagrestano, Ph.D. is the Director of the Center for Research on Women at the University of Memphis.  She earned a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California, Berkeley and held NIMH-funded postdoctoral fellowships at UCLA and the University of Illinois, Chicago. Her research interests include barriers to economic self sufficiency for women, maternal and prenatal health, adolescent sexual behavior, teen pregnancy, HIV prevention, sexual harassment in school, domestic violence, and gender and work stress. Her work is oriented toward applying psychological theory to understand and intervene on social problems and advance theory development. She collaborates with individuals in health and community agencies, to highlight the role of contextual factors in health processes and outcomes, with the goal of taking a more integrated approach to prevention and intervention in the public health sector.

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