Dr. Richard Freeland is the former President of Northeastern University, Commissioner of Higher Education for Massachusetts, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the City University of New York, and Dean of Arts and Sciences at the University of Massachusetts/Boston.  Currently he is Senior Advisor to the Coalition for Civic Learning and Democracy Education and Senior Consultant for the Association of Governing Boards.  

During his Presidency, Northeastern was transformed into a smaller, selective, financially healthy, national residential university with high achieving students and dramatically improved graduation rates. As Massachusetts Commissioner of Higher Education, Dr. Freeland worked closely with the legislature, the business community, and the campuses to improve the performance and visibility of the state’s public college system.  

Dr. Freeland was Principal of Freeland/Maguire Strategic Leadership Services, a higher education consulting firm. He has been a Trustee of Clark University, a member of the Executive Committee of the State Higher Education Executive Officers Organization, and a Director of the American Council on Education. He is currently a Trustee of the Davis Educational Association and a Commissioner on the Council on Higher Education as a Strategic Asset for our Nation.  

Dr. Freeland has published three books:  Transforming the Urban University, (University of Pennsylvania Press); Academia’s Golden Age, (Oxford University Press); and The Truman Doctrine and the Origins of McCarthyism (Knopf). He has published articles on presidential leadership, the academic value of practical experience and urban higher education. His teaching fields are American History and Higher Education. He is a graduate of Amherst College and earned his PhD at the University of Pennsylvania.