Michael A. Driscoll began serving as the president of Indiana University of Pennsylvania on July 1, 2012.
Driscoll served as provost and vice chancellor at the University of Alaska Anchorage since 2006, adding executive to his vice chancellor title in 2011.
As the chief academic officer for the 21,000-student multi-campus institution, Driscoll had a hand in academic policy and program planning, tuition policy, operating and capital budgets and institutional accountability issues. He led the university’s most recent strategic planning initiative and change in mission.
Under his leadership, UAA centralized its health-related programs into one college to provide a single point of contact and advising for students interested in health majors, to strengthen curriculum, to foster interdisciplinary faculty research and to advance the university as the state’s premier health university. He also worked with university and University of Alaska system colleagues to implement the Regents Engineering Expansion Initiative, which is doubling the number of undergraduate engineering degrees awarded within the system and resulted in increased state appropriations for more personnel and new construction at UAA.
Driscoll assisted the UAA development staff to garner UAA’s largest-ever corporate gift, $15 million from ConocoPhillips to name the university’s new integrated science building and to establish an arctic science and engineering endowment. He also worked with the staff to obtain a million-dollar gift from the Atwood Foundation to establish an endowed chair in the Journalism Department.
He established UAA’s Office of International Affairs, and, in collaboration with the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, signed an agreement with the Chinese government to establish the Confucius Institute at UAA, Alaska’s only such institute, which works to promote understanding of Chinese language and culture.
Before his move to UAA, Driscoll served in several positions at Portland State University in Oregon, including vice provost for Academic Personnel and Budget, associate dean and then executive dean of the Maseeh College of Engineering and Computer Science, and professor then associate chair of the Electrical Engineering Department.
He earned his Ph.D. in 1988, his M.S. in 1985, and his B.S. in 1983, all in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University.
In the personal portion of his curriculum vitae, Driscoll notes that he has a long-standing interest in naval history and confesses to having “an addiction to crossword puzzles.” He enjoys music and theater, and he and his wife and two adult children enjoy nice dinners in quiet restaurants.
Driscoll and his wife, Becky, look forward to living in and working with the Indiana community.
Photo by Mike Dineen, courtesy of University of Alaska Anchorage.
