ACE is excited to announce that innovative higher education leader Derrick Anderson is joining ACE as senior vice president for learning and engagement.
Anderson will lead ACE’s Learning and Engagement Division (LED), which promotes the development of high-quality, innovative practice through a blended learning and engagement model. LED focuses on three critical components of higher education’s value proposition for the 21st century: equity-minded leadership, student success, and institutional transformation.
Currently the managing director of university design at Arizona State University (ASU) and senior advisor to ASU President Michael Crow, Anderson will begin his role at ACE on Sept. 1. Anderson has been with ASU since 2013, previously serving as the innovation advisor to the president.
Derrick Anderson
Anderson’s work at Arizona State and elsewhere has focused on areas such as bringing diverse scientific and political stakeholders together to advance complex goals and building networks of scholars and practitioners to articulate and initiate activity in new domains of applied policy thought leadership. Also an associate professor at ASU, Anderson has taught nearly 500 students in various courses relating to public policy or public management since 2013.
“We’re thrilled that ACE, our member institutions, and all of higher education will benefit from Derrick’s visionary, entrepreneurial ability to design and implement innovative strategies that increase access to higher education and boost student success,” said ACE President Ted Mitchell. “Derrick will play a key role in ensuring that ACE fulfills its mission of transforming postsecondary education by cultivating inclusive communities of college and university executives through affordable and flexible professional learning experiences and fostering ongoing engagement with diverse constituencies.”
Anderson’s role includes overseeing ACE's comprehensive suite of educational programs and services, including research, professional learning, ACE Engage®, learning evaluation services, and internationalization and global engagement. LED also is responsible for engagement with ACE communities such as the ACE Women’s Network and Council of Fellows, along with facilitating ongoing relationships with corporate, philanthropic, and other stakeholders.
“I couldn’t be more excited to join the ACE team and collaborate on the development and execution of innovative strategies that help colleges and universities nationwide tackle tough challenges related to higher education quality, access, and affordability,” Anderson said. “I deeply appreciate the opportunities I have had to work so closely with President Crow and my colleagues at Arizona State on the transformational designs that have yielded so many benefits for our students, and I am eager to help ACE advance its vital mission to mobilize and transform all of American higher education.”
Anderson received BS and MPP degrees from ASU and a PhD from the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Georgia, where he attended as a Stanley W. Shelton Fellow.