President Eric J . Barron

GOPSUSPORTS.COM

PENN STATE UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATION

Eric J. Barron took the helm of Pennsylvania’s flagship public university on May 12, 2014, arriving from Florida State University, where he had been president for four years. No stranger to Happy Valley, he had previously spent 20 years of his career at Penn State, serving on the faculty of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and as dean of the college.

Barron has nearly 40 years of leadership experience in academic administration, education, research and public service, and a track record as a talented manager of fiscal policy within large and complex institutions. In recognition of his expertise and leadership in higher education, he was named chairman of the Commission on Economic and Community Engagement (CECE) for the Association of Public Land grant Universities (APLU) in fall 2017.

As leader of Penn State, Barron oversees a research enterprise of more than $968 million and 24 campus locations. His responsibilities include oversight of two law schools, the internationally recognized online educational enterprise known as the Penn State World Campus, and a nearly $2 billion health enterprise, including the Penn State College of Medicine, the Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and the Penn State Health network, which extends throughout Central Pennsylvania. Penn State’s current enrollment is approximately 97,000 students, and the University boasts the world’s largest dues-paying alumni association in the world.

During his tenure as president of Penn State, Barron has prioritized access and affordability; diversity and inclusion; student engagement; economic development; job creation and student career success; and technology.

Under Barron’s leadership, Penn State has achieved record-setting results in the University’s fundraising campaign, A Greater Penn State for 21st Century Excellence. Penn State has now raised more than $1 billion of the $2.1 billion goal.

Barron’s Invent Penn State initiative supports investment in entrepreneurship and innovation programs, tools and resources that accelerate the movement of great ideas to the marketplace and make a substantial economic development impact in Pennsylvania and beyond. Since its inception in 2015, Invent Penn State has partnered with the University’s campuses across the Commonwealth to open 21 innovation hubs available to the surrounding communities. These hubs have provided resources to more than 2,500 entrepreneurs, engaged more than 7,100 students in entrepreneurial thinking and startups, graduated 224 startup teams from accelerator programs, resourced 208 product development projects, and created more than 145 new jobs.

Barron earned a bachelor of science degree in geology at Florida State in 1973 before moving on to the University of Miami, where he earned master’s and doctoral degrees in oceanography. At Penn State, Dr. Barron served as dean of the College of

Earth and Mineral Sciences from 2002-06, and as founding director of the Earth System Science Center, one of the first major initiatives focused on the total study of Earth as a system. He also had a simultaneous appointment as director of the Earth and Mineral Sciences Environment Institute. In 1999, he was named Distinguished Professor of Geosciences at Penn State.

An accomplished scientist with a long background in atmospheric research, Barron served as director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and as dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Early in his career he was a postdoctoral research fellow and scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Co.

ERIC J. BARRON P

President • Eighth Year Florida State ’72 (B.S.) • University of Miami ’76 (M.S.) • University of Miami ’80 (Ph.D.)

• Hired as Penn State President Feb. 17, 2014 • Led Florida State as president • Served as dean of PSU’s Earth & Mineral Sciences