TC President will assume new post in September  

Arthur Levine, President of Teachers College, Columbia University, will become the sixth president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation in September, both the Foundation and Teachers College jointly announced today.  

Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Foundation is widely known for fostering leadership and innovation in education at all levels, in particular by awarding distinguished graduate fellowships, championing liberal arts education and promoting leadership opportunities for individuals from underserved groups.

Levine, a nationally recognized educator who also holds the title of Professor of Education, has presided over Teachers College since 1995. During that time, the College has nearly tripled its endowment, to over $160 million; refurbished and rehabilitated its entire physical plant; reorganized and strengthened its faculty and Board of Trustees; conducted the largest capital campaign ever undertaken by a graduate school of education; and adopted a new mission focused on educational equity. The College consistently ranks among the top education schools in the country.

"The Wilson Foundation has been an extraordinary force in American education, and I am honored and humbled to assume its presidency," Levine said. "I can think of no better pulpit from which to continue the fight for educational equity in America, both in our public schools and in higher education, and to improve the way that schools of education prepare teachers, school leaders, researchers and policymakers."

Levine also is a prolific author and education scholar. His publications include  When Hope and Fear Collide: A Portrait of Today's College Student (with Jeanette S. Cureton); Beating the Odds:  How the Poor Get to College; Higher Learning in America; Shaping Higher Education's Future; When Dreams and Heroes Died:  A Portrait of Today's College Students; Handbook on Undergraduate Curriculum; Quest for Common Learning (with Ernest Boyer); Opportunity in Adversity (with Janice Green), and Why Innovation Fails.  This past spring, he published "Educating School Leaders," the first in a four-part series of reports that assesses the state of America's education schools.

Prior to Teachers College, he served as Chair of the Higher Education program and Chair of the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

"Arthur Levine is an extraordinary leader, a remarkably successful educational innovator, and a bold, thought-provoking scholar," said Nancy Weiss Malkiel, chair of the Woodrow Wilson Board of Trustees.  "He believes, as we do, that education is the vehicle for changing the world.  His passion and expertise are just the right match for our work in secondary school-university partnerships, and, in particular, our new commitment to finding effective ways to recruit, prepare, and support exceptional arts and science undergraduates for careers as secondary school teachers and catalysts for change in urban public schools.  We could not have found a better leader to help us address the most pressing problems of education in the 21st century."
 
Levine announced this past September that he would step down as Teachers College's president at the end of the 2005-06 school year. The College's search for a new president has been underway for the past month and a half.

Published Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2005