Richard Ekman

​Richard Ekman has served as president of the Council of Independent Colleges since 2000. Previously, Ekman served as vice president for programs of Atlantic Philanthropies and as secretary and senior program officer of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Earlier, he was at the National Endowment for the Humanities, successively as director of the Division of Education Programs and the Division of Research Programs; at Hiram College as vice president and dean, where he was a tenured member of the history faculty; and at the University of Massachusetts at Boston as assistant to the provost. He currently serves as a member of many boards, including those that provide guidance to the Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, American Academic Leadership Institute, Emeriti Retirement Health, Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute, and Project Pericles. He has been awarded honorary degrees by Alvernia, Otterbein, St. Edward’s, and Marywood Universities, and Alderson-Broaddus, Bethany, Davis & Elkins, Georgetown, Hastings, and Ursinus Colleges, and is a recipient of the W.E.B. DuBois Medal of Harvard University. He is co-author, with Richard E. Quandt, of
Technology and Scholarly Communication (University of California Press, 1999). His essays have appeared in the
Chronicle of Higher Education,
University Business,
Inside Higher Ed,
Carnegie Reporter, and
Washington Post. Ekman earned his AB in history and PhD in the history of American civilization from Harvard University.