College of DuPage President Robert L. Breuder to Receive
The Association of Community College Trustees announced Friday that it has selected College of DuPage President Robert L. Breuder to receive the 2013 Central Region CEO Award. The award annually recognizes outstanding services and contributions made by community college chief executive officers.
“I am honored to have been nominated and chosen for this prestigious recognition,” President Breuder said. “It is a reflection of the hard work and innovation of all of the employees with whom I have had the privilege of working these past 32 years as President.”
A brief list of some of Dr. Breuder's achievements since his arrival at College of DuPage in January 2009 includes adding more than 50 certificate and degree programs, securing passage of a $168 million capital referendum during a challenging election cycle; enhancing the College's financial position during the worst economy since the Great Depression and increasing its fund balance by more than $100 million (to $143 million or 81 percent of the College's operating budget as of June 2013); conceiving of and implementing a comprehensive strategic long-range planning process, and overseeing more than $550 million in campus improvements involving more than 1 million square feet of enhanced educational space, anchored by the construction of the nation's first Homeland Security Education Center, to be named in President Breuder's honor upon retirement from COD. Click here for a complete list of institutional outcomes.
In his nomination of President Breuder for the award, former COD Board of Trustees Chairman David Carlin wrote “A fearless advocate for community colleges and the role they play in our nation's economy, President Breuder has been a one-person revolution during his more than 32 years as a college president at three institutions. Words most often used to define Dr. Breuder's leadership are: ‘visionary, risk taker, change agent, communicator, strategic planner, entrepreneur, business minded, tenacious, caring and team builder.'”
President Breuder previously served as president of William Rainey Harper College, in Palatine, Ill., and the Penn College of Technology, in Williamsport, Pa.
The Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) is a non-profit educational organization of governing boards, representing more than 6,500 elected and appointed trustees who govern over 1,200 community, technical, and junior colleges in the United States and beyond.