State higher education agencies and leadership recognized for dedication and innovation
WASHINGTON – The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) has announced the organization’s 2024 SHEEO Excellence Awards recipients. The awards recognize the leadership, dedication, and innovation of exceptional SHEEOs, agency staff, and agencies at a time when state postsecondary policy is increasingly linked to student success, social mobility, and states’ workforce and economic prosperity.
- This year’s Exceptional Leader Award recipient is Aaron Thompson, President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.
- The Exceptional Agency Award recipient goes to Pennsylvania’s State System for Higher Education.
- The 2024 David L. Wright Memorial Award recipient is Robert Haelen, Senior Vice Chancellor for Capital Facilities, at the State University of New York (SUNY).
Reflecting on the SHEEO Excellence Awards, Dr. Robert Anderson, SHEEO President, said: “SHEEO is proud to acknowledge the dedication of all our state higher education executive officers, their agencies, and agency staff members. The hours worked, the ideas generated, and the tenacity demonstrated by these individuals and agencies to help address the needs of students and promote equitable educational outcomes are worthy of praise. We are honored to recognize the winners of this year’s SHEEO Excellence Awards.”
Exceptional Leader Award
The Exceptional Leader Award is presented to a current state higher education executive officer from a member agency who has shown exceptional leadership, a commitment to higher education, a contribution to the greater good, and service to the SHEEO Association within the last year.
This year’s recipient of the Exceptional Leader Award, Dr. Aaron Thompson, is the President of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (CPE). As a first-generation high school graduate and college graduate, Thompson’s commitment to education is demonstrated through years of service to students through teaching, policy, advocacy, and his leadership at the state level, as well as his involvement in SHEEO at the national level.
Thompson previously taught for 20 years and served as associate vice president for academic affairs, both at Eastern Kentucky University. He transitioned to CPE in 2009, holding positions as senior vice president for academic affairs and executive vice president. Thompson briefly held the position of interim president of Kentucky State University before re-joining CPE as President in 2018. In this role, Thompson has made narrowing student achievement gaps an agency priority.
Under Thompson’s leadership, CPE implemented Kentucky’s postsecondary diversity, equity and inclusion policy, which ties campuses’ performance on equity measures to their ability to offer new programs in an academic year. He founded the Kentucky Student Success Collaborative, a unique partnership of public and private institutions from two- and four-year postsecondary sectors that focus on improving student outcomes for underserved students. Under Thompson’s leadership, CPE has also implemented a performance funding model for higher education that provides financial incentives for degrees and credentials awarded to low-income and underrepresented minority students. As a result, underrepresented minority students’ total enrollment has grown by 28 percent, and their credentials have increased by 42 percent during his tenure.
Thompson has led the charge on several CPE workforce initiatives, including the Healthcare Workforce Collaborative, which seeks to strengthen Kentucky’s health care workforce, and the Kentucky Graduate Profile, a statewide effort to instill employability skills into the curricula of all undergraduate programs.
“Kentucky is fortunate to have a leader who’s passionate about increasing postsecondary access and success,” said Kentucky Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman. “Dr. Thompson knows the future of the Commonwealth is in our classrooms, and his commitment to serving underrepresented students has made a demonstrable difference in the lives of Kentuckians.”
According to Madison Silvert, CPE Board Chair, “Aaron’s rapport with state leaders has increased the Council on Postsecondary Education’s reputation and ability to drive a strong agenda. Increasingly, CPE is looked to for expert testimony and recommendations related to postsecondary issues in the Commonwealth. Aaron’s leadership is a big part of this.”
Exceptional Agency Award
The Exceptional Agency Award is presented to a member agency whose innovative actions, policies, or practices advanced student success in their state; which displayed exceptional governance practices; overcame exceptional challenges; or displayed other meritorious attributes within the last year. SHEEO has selected Pennsylvania’s State System for Higher Education as this year’s awardee.
Pennsylvania’s State System for Higher Education (PASSHE) recently embarked on a purposeful and inclusive restructuring to provide greater opportunities for all students. PASSHE’s system redesign includes steps to address urgent workforce development needs and persist as a potent source for social mobility. PASSHE’s redesign includes tuition freezes to help with student affordability and enrollment, and rebuilding the partnership with government leaders to secure historic state funding increases, including a nearly 30 percent state funding increase, and $370 million in one-time funds.
Faced with declining enrollment and severe financial pressures at some universities, PASSHE took the bold step to create two new universities by uniting six legacy institutions. The transformation preserves higher education opportunities across countless rural communities in Pennsylvania and enables students to have more access to courses, programs, and experiences than they would have without the integration of those schools. Additionally, PASSHE leverages its universities’ strengths as a system to restructure accountability and governance, uses data analytics for metrics-based decisions, and partners with the private sector to expand internships and align academic programs to workforce needs.
These bold actions and achievements have positioned PASSHE as a role model among SHEEO agencies.
“PASSHE is fundamentally transforming its education and business models to continue its historic mission as an engine of workforce development and social mobility. The work is not easy, but it is in the best interests of our students, their families, communities, and our Commonwealth,” said Chancellor Dr. Dan Greenstein. “I’m incredibly proud that the hard work, dedication, and accomplishments of people across our system are being recognized with the Exceptional Agency Award from SHEEO. Higher education is undergoing enormous changes, and PASSHE is evolving to emphasize affordability, student success, fiscal responsibility, and transparency.”
Of PASSHE’s recent innovation, Dr. Cynthia Shapira, Chair, Board of Governors, said, “Thanks to the tremendous vision and leadership of Chancellor Dan Greenstein, PASSHE is undergoing a remarkable transformation that includes restoring our partnership with state leaders, securing historic state funding increases, keeping tuition flat, and much more. We continue to face the same headwinds that all public universities are facing, but we are better positioned today because of the important steps we are taking — all of which are making education more accessible and expanding the college-to-career pipeline that is strengthening Pennsylvania’s workforce and economy.”
David L. Wright Memorial Award
The David L. Wright Memorial Award is named in honor of the late David Wright, an esteemed colleague and leader in state higher education who served in the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association, and the Florida Governing Board. This award recognizes a current SHEEO agency staff member from a member agency who embodies the exceptional commitment, work ethic, and ethical practices of David Wright and made outstanding contributions to their agency. This year’s David L. Wright Memorial Award is presented to Robert Haelen, Senior Vice Chancellor for Capital Facilities, at the State University of New York (SUNY).
Haelen brings extensive experience and effective leadership to his position, including over 30 years of experience in developing and implementing multi-year capital plans in public higher education. As Senior Vice Chancellor for Capital Facilities, Haelen provides strategic and tactical advice to SUNY’s senior leadership team as well as to campus leadership on challenging policy and financial issues and with structuring complex transactions.
Whether supporting the new construction projects that provide outpatient care and clinical space for students to practice, or repairing infrastructure leaks to keep a campus operational, Haelen engages his team providing tactical advice on projects, no matter how big or small, to achieve successful outcomes. He also graciously leads by example, putting his hard hat on, getting dusty and dirty, and touring projects experiencing difficult issues in order to support his team and provide experiential guidance.
Haelen is responsible for setting policy and guidelines for the procurement of design and construction services and property acquisitions, and the management and oversight of the Residence Hall Capital Program (496 buildings that comprise 21 million gross square feet and house 82,000 beds) and the Community College Capital Program (536 buildings that comprise 19.9 million gross square feet).
As General Manager of the State University Construction Fund, Haelen manages the planning, design, construction and funding of capital projects within SUNY’s multi-billion dollar educational and hospital facilities capital plans, which are comprised of 1,795 buildings and 68.2 million gross square feet of space.
Some of Haelen’s recent accomplishments include:
- Overseeing a recent endeavor to initiate and complete clean energy master plans for SUNY’s 34 State-operated campuses providing valuable information on SUNY’s sustainability pathway going forward;
- Initiating a debt restructuring for the two years’ worth of debt service on Residence Hall Program, providing $300 million in total cash flow relief in 2020-21 and 2021-22, which allowed SUNY to navigate the financial turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; and
- Implementing the purchase and installation of an asset management software package for 64 campuses, effectively replacing existing legacy systems while at the same time, providing a vehicle for performing life cycle modeling for the 34 State-operated campuses.
With extensive experience and carrying out each project with pride — all for the betterment of every student’s college experience – Haelen made an excellent candidate to receive this year’s David L. Wright Award.
SUNY Chancellor John B. King Jr. said, “Bob Haelen is a proud product of the SUNY system, receiving his master’s from the University at Albany and serving SUNY with distinction for over 30 years. He is an outstanding leader, ensuring the successful planning, design, and construction of all SUNY capital projects for state-operated campuses to provide state-of-the-art facilities for our students, faculty, and staff. I am truly thrilled and proud to see Bob’s hard work and leadership recognized by SHEEO with the David L. Wright Memorial Award.”
Learn more about SHEEO Excellence Awards, including past winners at https://sheeo.org/membership/sheeo-awards/.
