Dr. Kyle Long, a faculty member at the George Washington University, and former faculty member and administrative leader at Northwestern University and the American University of Iraq, has been elected the university's fifth president. He will succeed interim President Lance de Masi on August 15, 2024, and has visited the campus in May to prepare for the presidential transition.
Throughout his career, Dr. Long has distinguished himself as a driver of change in higher education. At Northwestern University, he was responsible for developing the university’s change strategies and advising senior leaders from the university’s 12 schools and central administration. Dr. Long's signature initiatives resulted in optimization of resources for campus internationalization and improved accountability for professional and alternative credential programs. His broad portfolio required a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the units that he will lead as the AUD president. And his experiences steering cross-functional projects with professionals across the entirety of university administration will enable him to build and maintain productive relationships with AUD staff and faculty.
Dr. Long comes to the presidency with substantial experience in the Middle East. As Director of Communications and Institutional Development at the start-up American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS), he managed a multi-national, multi-lingual office (English, Kurdish, and Arabic) with a considerable mandate and few resources. He reported directly to the President and supervised full-time staff members from three departments. At AUIS, Dr. Long was responsible for all official communication and led engagement with governments and the private sector. He also oversaw the regulatory and compliance functions for accreditation in Kurdistan, Iraq, and the United States. Partnerships, too, were under his purview. And while there he cultivated robust institutional agreements with numerous American and European universities.
During his time in Iraq, Dr. Long led several notable changes in the area of university governance. These included the dissolution and re-founding of the board of trustees as well as the coordination of a global presidential search. Upon his departure from the campus in Iraq, he served as the inaugural director of the university's office in the United States, and helped to establish a U.S.-based charitable foundation to support the university. Today, AUIS has a functioning, committed board of trustees and an affiliated foundation that supports the university with funds from American donors.
Dr. Long has extended his insights on higher education administration to presidents, provosts, deans, and other higher education executives in the United States, Canada, and Australia. As a consultant in the higher education practice of Hanover Research, a global advisory services firm, he provided evidence-backed solutions to challenges ranging from academic development to enrollment management to employer relations. He has also given counsel to the U.S. government and foreign governments on a range of education issues. He was the lead researcher on the U.S. Agency for International Development's efforts to strengthen the capacity of higher education institutions and systems in low- and middle-income countries. And he has advised education ministry officials from Afghanistan, the Kyrgyz Republic, and Ukraine as well as entrepreneurs seeking to establish universities in Italy and India.
"As AUD enters its thirtieth year of providing world-class education, it will require dynamic and visionary leadership.” said Justin Cooper, Chair of the AUD Governing Board. "Dr. Long has proven that he has what it takes to lead AUD into its next phase of growth. Whether in the Middle East or the United States, whether in a university three years or 173 years old, Dr. Long has shown he is a visionary strategist, tactful decision-maker, and resourceful organizer. The governing board is thrilled for him to join the AUD community."
Dr. Long is an internationally recognized authority on American higher education outside the United States. His scholarship has rendered him an award-winning author and sought-after speaker on issues pertaining to international campuses and the geopolitics of education. He is frequently called on by journalists to comment on international education issues in the news. His book, The Emergence of the American University Abroad, was awarded the 2022 Best Book Prize from the Comparative & International Education Society’s Higher Education Special Interest Group. His latest research projects have explored foreign interference in higher education and transnational crisis leadership in American universities, with particular attention on how universities support refugees and how inter-organizational networks support universities in duress. His scholarship has been published in Current Issues in Comparative Education, International Higher Education, and Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning, among other venues.
For the past 15 years, Dr. Long has been a steadfast promoter of American higher education abroad. Recognizing the lack of comprehensive resources on this subject, he developed the Global American Higher Education database. This initiative, which he launched with grant support from the University of Southern California’s Center on Public Diplomacy, provides a vast repository of data on American educational institutions operating overseas. The database, which covers over 300 institutions across 90 countries spanning 187 years, serves as an unparalleled tool for scholars, policymakers, and journalists.
"Dr. Long is one of the world's experts on international education," observed interim President Lance de Masi, who will continue to provide service to AUD as a member of the governing board. "He will be able to draw on his knowledge of global higher education trends and regional, economic, and social dynamics to contextualize AUD, communicate its unique mission, and articulate the opportunities for strengthening it. He has the experience, commitment to excellence, and personality to take AUD to the next phase in its development."
Dr. Long's passion for American universities abroad is due in large part to their collective history of supporting a diverse range of students. Indeed, Dr. Long’s commitment to social equity is most visible in his efforts to support international students. In 2023, he organized a conference at the George Washington University that brought Afghan student refugees directly into contact with U.S. policymakers. As Vice President of the American University of Iraq Foundation, he initiated an emergency fund during the pandemic to help relieve financial pressures faced by students. His proactive fundraising efforts during this critical period ensured that the most vulnerable students were able to purchase laptops, pay for home internet and electricity, and, in some cases, cover tuition when parents lost their jobs. At Northwestern, Dr. Long served on the university's committee charged with developing strategies to support first-generation and low-income students. His significant experiences with--and appreciation for--a diverse student body equip Dr. Long for success at AUD, where its nearly 2,000 students come from over 100 different countries.
At George Washington University, Dr. Long is a well-regarded lecturer and adviser in the Department of Educational Leadership, where he was a previous holder of the UNESCO Chair in International Education for Development. At GW, he has taught courses on international and comparative education, international development, and public diplomacy. He has also taught courses on higher education policy and sociology at Northwestern and Columbia, respectively. Dr. Long's pedagogical approach extends beyond the classroom, as he regularly conducts research and publishes papers with students. AUD students will have an opportunity to learn directly from Dr. Long, who will teach undergraduate and graduate courses from time to time.
"AUD is an institution that highly values good teaching. So it was important for us to find a president who is also a good teacher," noted AUD founder, Executive Vice President and governing board member, Elias Bou Saab. "Everyone we talked to raved about Dr. Long's teaching acumen. We are highly confident in his ability to ensure that AUD students develop marketable professional skills and strengthen their capacity for independent learning."
Dr. Long takes the approach of an educator into his administrative work as well. His time at Northwestern showcased his capacity for nurturing talent and fostering professional development. During the pandemic, he helped to reimagine the university's flagship professional development event. The Best Practices Forum was traditionally reserved for select mid-to-senior level staff as a full-day, in-person gathering to highlight innovative work impacting the institution positively. Recognizing the need to adapt without losing the essence of the event, Dr. Long oversaw the team that transformed the forum into a dynamic, hybrid modality conference, expanding its reach to over 500 individuals from all three of Northwestern's campuses (Evanston, Chicago, and Doha). This pivot not only maintained the forum's collaborative spirit but also democratized access, allowing for the largest participation in the forum's history. The revised approach set a new benchmark for future conferences at the university, blending in-person networking with the inclusivity of digital access. The participants' overwhelmingly positive feedback underscored his team’s success in providing a scalable and adaptable template for professional development events.
This was not Dr. Long's first foray into staff professional development. Prior to Northwestern, Dr. Long created a novel training program for staff at Hanover Research. "Hanover University" consists of six-week courses on a variety of topics in higher education. The inaugural course, "Enduring and Emergent Tensions in Higher Education," was designed to enhance the team's industry acumen, critical thinking, and communication skills, ultimately elevating the quality of client service and research output. This initiative not only served as a knowledge enhancement tool but also fostered cross-team collaboration on issues central to the staff's and clients' interests. The resounding positive feedback from participants, who reported significant gains in their understanding of the field, validated the effectiveness of the program. This professional development effort was so well-received that it has become a lasting educational resource within the organization, even after Dr. Long's departure.
"Great leaders are usually either fire tenders or fire stokers," said Stephen G. Franklin, a member of the AUD governing board and a former interim president of AUD. "Fire tenders have the managerial competence to sustain effective operations. Fire stokers have the vision and resourcefulness to take organizations to new heights. It is rare to find those qualities in the same person. Dr. Long has both."
Dr. Long earned a bachelor's degree in Classics from Wabash College (IN), a master's degree in the Great Books program at St. John's College (MD), and a Ph.D. in International and Comparative Education at Columbia University (NY). He was a David L. Boren Fellow and visiting scholar at New York University Abu Dhabi.
Dr. Long began his career in educational research at the Center of Inquiry in the Liberal Arts at Wabash College, where he was part of a team that conducted a national assessment of student learning outcomes and helped institutional leaders to use evidence to strengthen student learning. While at the Association of Governing Boards, Dr. Long was part of the team pioneering efforts to promote the practice of strategic finance—essentially integrating the long-term strategic planning and short-term budgeting processes—among university and foundation boards.
Dr. Long will be joined in Dubai by his wife, Stacie Long.
