Casteen Receives 2016 ACE Council of Fellows/Fidelity Investments Mentor Award
March 13, 2016

John T. Casteen III, president emeritus of the University of Virginia, was presented today with the 2016 Council of Fellows/Fidelity Investments Mentor Award* during the opening plenary of ACE2016, ACE's 98th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.

The Council of Fellows/Fidelity Investments Mentor Award is bestowed annually to acknowledge the substantial role of mentors in the success of ACE Fellows Program participants.

Established in 1965, the ACE Fellows Program is designed to strengthen institutions and leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing faculty and staff for senior positions in college and university administration. Nearly 2,000 higher education leaders have participated in the ACE Fellows Program since its inception, with more than 300 Fellows having served as chief executive officers of colleges or universities and more than 1,300 having served as provosts, vice presidents and deans.

Casteen, who served as UVA’s president from 1990-2010, has mentored six Fellows and nominated two others to participate in the program. 

"President Emeritus Casteen’s dedication to the Fellows Program exemplifies his commitment to helping pave a path for future higher education leaders,” said Lynn M. Gangone, ACE’s vice president of leadership programs. “Mentors are a driving force in what makes the Fellows Program so unique, and we are grateful to him and the thousands of other mentors who have devoted such extensive time and effort over the years to the program.”

Since 2008, Fidelity Investments has been a generous supporter of the ACE Fellows Program, enabling the Council of Fellows to provide support for the discretionary fund of the Mentor Award winner's institution as well as the Fellows Fund for the Future, which provides stipends to defray costs of sponsoring a Fellow for qualified institutions.

“Fidelity celebrates the role mentors play in cultivating the next generation toward success. Today, we applaud those in higher education who are committed to mentoring future leaders,” said Alexandra Taussig, senior vice president, Tax-Exempt Market, Fidelity Investments.

Over his 20 years at UVA and during an earlier term as president of the University of Connecticut, Casteen oversaw increases in the representation of women, minority, and economically disadvantaged students, and similar changes in the composition of the faculty. In 2003, he directed the creation of AccessUVA, the university's full-need financial aid program.

Casteen also presided over substantial growth—intellectual, financial and physical—at UVA. His projects ranged from new construction and renovation programs (some 140 buildings in all) to fostering development of new academic disciplines (media studies, neuroscience and public policy, for example). Casteen led two financial campaigns for the university's endowment, one that raised some $1.4 billion, and the other, which current UVA President Teresa Sullivan completed after taking office, raising more than $3 billion.

Casteen earned his B.A. (1965), M.A. (1966) and Ph.D. (1970) degrees in English from the University of Virginia. His honorary degrees include doctorates from the universities of Edinburgh and Athens.

After retiring from his role as president in 2010, Casteen continues to teach as a professor at UVA. His current courses include one primarily for graduate students on intellectual history in Venice, a multi-year series of graduate seminars on the governance of colleges and universities, and introductory courses in Old English and Old Icelandic. He is an active Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

The Rev. Dennis H. Holtschneider, C.M., president of DePaul University (IL), was the recipient of the 2015 Council of Fellows/Fidelity Investments Mentor Award.

*ACE and Fidelity Investments® are independent entities and are not legally affiliated. The recipients of the Council of Fellows/Fidelity Investments Mentor Award are selected solely by the Executive Committee of the Council of Fellows. Fidelity employees are not involved, in any way, in determining, selecting or approving the recipient or amount of any award. The selection criteria and guidelines for the award may be obtained directly from ACE.

 

Left to right: Lynn Gangone; Richard L. Byyny, chancellor emeritus, University of Colorado Boulder; Alexandra Taussing; John T. Casteen; ACE President Molly Corbett Broad; and Thomas J. Botzman, president, Misericordia University and chair, ACE Council of Fellows.

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