Ron Cole

Ron Cole became provost and dean of the college at Allegheny College in 2015 where he served as a faculty member for 20 years and held leadership positions as department and natural science division chair, faculty moderator, a member of the Trustees diversity task force, and chair of faculty council, the faculty review committee, and finance and facilities committee. As provost he promoted data-informed change to improve student access and success leading to curricular revisions in STEM and humanities fields and increased student retention. He led strategic work to achieve operational savings while investing in new academic programs and advanced diversity of faculty and the curriculum with an interdisciplinary cohort program in race, gender, and social justice. Cole has been directly or indirectly involved with securing and managing over $4M in foundation funding in support of institutional initiatives. Cole is a speaker on campus leadership for the Council of Independent Colleges national workshop for division and department chairs and has been a panelist at national higher ed conferences on topics that include leading transformational change, crisis communication, global internships, community engaged learning, and the value of the liberal arts. He was recognized in 2021 by the Council of Independent Colleges with their Chief Academic Officer Award. As a teacher-scholar Cole teaches at all levels of the curriculum, received the Allegheny College Thoburn Award for excellence in teaching, and established an active student-focused undergraduate research program in the geosciences with over $500k in funding from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, and the American Chemical Society and over 100 published articles, book chapters, and conference presentations. Before his career in higher education, Cole worked in the environmental consulting industry.