Ward named to national education post

Former Chancellor David Ward says he is eager to join the national policy debate as president of the American Council on Education, the nation’s principal higher education association.

His appointment, effective Sept. 1, was announced today, April 2, in Washington. D.C. Ward is currently a visiting scholar at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California, Berkeley.

“The genius of American higher education is its broad access and the great variety of high quality higher education institutions that serve society,” Ward says. “We are looking at a future that I believe will be much more collaborative than competitive, especially in the development of instructional technology and distance learning. It will be incredibly exciting to be at the very center of the national debate and public policy process at ACE and to help shape the future.

“Colleges and universities in the United States are still the envy of the world, but that also means we have much to share with the world and can continue to improve as we interact with campuses in other countries,” Ward continued. “I look forward to engaging in this international dialogue and hope to find new ways to improve the international scope of American higher education through my work at ACE.”

ACE is an association representing 1,800 accredited, degree-granting institutions from all sectors of higher education and nearly 200 national and regional higher education associations and organizations.

“David Ward has been a very effective leader at one of America’s great research universities, and I am very pleased and honored to have chaired a search committee able to attract someone of his quality,” says University of Georgia President Michael F. Adams, past chair of the ACE Board of Directors. “I am certain he will move ACE forward in exciting ways and very much look forward to working with him.”

Ward will be the eleventh president of ACE since its founding in 1918, and succeeds Stanley O. Ikenberry, who last year announced plans to resign following five years as ACE president.

Ikenberry views Ward as a superb choice: “He is superbly equipped to lead and give higher education the strong, clear voice it will require in the years ahead.”

Ward, 62, was born in Manchester, England, and received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Leeds. He earned a Fulbright Travel award to the United States in 1960 and received a doctorate from UW–Madison in 1963. He became a U.S. citizen in 1976.

His UW–Madison faculty career spans more than 30 years. Ward served as chair of the geography department from 1974-77, and as associate dean of the Graduate School from 1980-87.

Ward became vice chancellor for academic affairs at UW–Madison in 1989, and in 1991, he was also named provost. He became interim chancellor in January 1993, and was named to the post in June 1993. He stepped down in January.

As a scholar, Ward is a recognized authority in historical urban geography and has pioneered research on English and American cities during their rapid growth of the 19th and early 20th centuries. He is a past president of the Association of American Geographers. He has authored two books, edited two books and contributed many articles in leading academic journals.

Ward has spent considerable time in Washington working within the leadership of the nation’s higher education associations, including ACE. He served as a member of the board of directors, and chaired the Government Relations Council, of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (1998-2000). He also served on the Committee on Undergraduate Education of the Association of American Universities (1996-2000); the Science Coalition (1996-2000); the Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities (1996-2000); and ACE’s Commission on International Education (1996-2000).

In addition, Ward chaired the Board of Directors of the Big Ten Conference (1997-1999), and the Board of Directors of the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development: Internet2 (1997-2000).

Ward and his wife, Judith, currently associate executive director of the Waisman Center, will live in Washington, D.C., but will maintain their home in Madison.

An independent, non-profit association, ACE represents higher education before Congress, federal agencies, the Supreme Court, and the federal courts. It serves as the locus for discussion and decision-making on higher education issues of national importance and works to ensure quality education on the nation’s campuses and equal educational opportunity for all U.S. citizens.