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Jason Lane

Dean, College of Education, Health, and Society

Miami University

Background

Jason Lane is a systems thinker and higher education strategist with expertise in higher education systems and multi-campus transformation efforts around the globe. His work in the area of systemness has been instrumental in understanding collaborative transformation efforts and restructuring higher education to better serve the needs of students and society.  A frequent speaker and commentator on higher education issues, Lane’s work has taken him to more than 30 countries to engage with universities, systems, governments, and international organizations.

Lane currently serves as Dean of the College of Education, Health and Society at Miami University and professor of higher education and international education. Previously, he served as the dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University at Albany and held senior leadership positions with the Rockefeller Institute of Government and the State University of New York, where he led several multi-campus transformative academic initiatives, including Seamless Transfer, Open SUNY, and START-UP NY.

A Fulbright New Century Scholar, Lane co-founded the Cross-Border Education Research Team (CBERT), which is the global leader in tracking the development of multi-national systems of higher education. This work has been recognized with several awards including for Significant Research on International Higher Education from the Association for the Study of Higher Education. He has served in advisory roles to several national and international organizations including OECD, UNESCO, and the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT).

In order to advance systemness within the United States, Lane co-founded and led Taking Student Success to Scale (TS3) a seven-year project of the National Association of System Heads (NASH) to leverage systems of higher education to improve student success outcomes. As the director of NASH’s Systems Center, he works to support system-level multi-campus transformation efforts, including serving on the external advisory board for the $10 million NSF project, RISE-UPP, focused on developing system-level pipelines to diversify the faculty. Lane also currently leads several national initiatives to strengthen and diversify the higher education leadership pipeline, including AGB’s Institute for Leadership and Governance and NASH’s System Leadership Academy.

Lane, an Amazon best-selling author, has published more than 100 papers and 14 books focused on the changing role of colleges and universities. His books include Academic Leadership and Governance of Higher Education (Stylus Press, second edition), Multi-National Colleges and Universities: Leadership and Administration of International Branch Campuses (Jossey-Bass), Higher Education Systems 3.0 and Higher Education Systems Redesigned (both from SUNY Press). He is frequently quoted in both main-stream and trade publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and Fox News. He has garnered more than $20 million in grant funding, including from the Carnegie Corporation, Gates Foundation, and the US Department of Education.

Education & Training

Lane holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Higher Education and a Master of Arts in Political Science and Government from Penn State University. He also has a Bachelor of Science in Political Science from Southeast Missouri State University.

Outside Interests

Lane and his wife Kari currently have three young children (including twins) that keep them on the run. He has successfully convinced them to pursue downhill skiing and they have convinced him to take up Tae Kwon Do. He hopes to someday return to a golf course.

Why I Work With NCHEMS

I have been consistently impressed with NCHEMS efforts to advance a public agenda for higher education, strengthening the sector’s ability to serve both students and society.  Having had the opportunity to work alongside them on many projects over the last twenty years, I’m delighted to help support an organization that is dedicated to efforts to use data and provided straightforward and practical advice that is readily used by higher education leaders and policy makers alike.