COD president to receive 2014 CASE Region V Chief Executive Leadership Award

College of DuPage President Dr. Robert L. Breuder will receive the 2014 CASE Region V Chief Executive Leadership Award on Dec. 16 at the annual CASE V conference in Chicago.

The award, established in 1999 by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, recognizes the work and contributions of top educational executives within CASE District V, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

"I am very honored to have been nominated and selected for this prestigious award," said Dr. Breuder. "This is a reflection of not just me but of the countless accomplishments of the many individuals I have had the privilege of working alongside."

At one time the youngest community college president in the country, Dr. Breuder has been an agent of change during his more than 34 years as college president at three different institutions. At College of DuPage, just some of Dr. Breuder's accomplishments since his arrival in 2009 include:

• Introducing 12 on campus 3+1 baccalaureate degrees involving five partner universities;

• Achieving significant enrollment increases when all other Illinois community college districts have been down (College of DuPage currently has a credit head count of more than 29,000 students);

• Overseeing the growth in the college's unallocated fund balance from $43 million to $178 million over a five-year period;

• Overseeing more than $550 million in campus improvements;

• Restructuring and centralizing all College of DuPage fundraising/alumni development in 2012-13 such that by the end of FY14, the COD Foundation increased its fundraising production from $1.2 million annually to $5 million last year, with an annual increase in donors of 225 percent and an increase of 32 percent to the Foundation's portfolio;

• Ushering in an era of service excellence at COD by instituting the Enhanced Student Experience Implementation Plan (ESEIP) to increase student satisfaction and improve retention and enrollment;

• Instituting the College's first use of the AQIP-Baldrige Option for reaffirmation of accreditation by the Higher Learning Commission, earning the Illinois Performance Excellence Bronze Award for Commitment to Excellence, making the College only the sixth community college recipient of this award since its inception in 1996;

• Overseeing the execution of a robust strategic planning process for which College of DuPage was named a winner of the 2014 Richard Goodman Strategic Planning Award from the Association for Strategic Planning.

For a complete list of institutional outcomes at College of DuPage, click here.

Raised in Queens, New York, Dr. Breuder earned his B.A. in Biology ('67) and his M.S. in Student Personnel Services ('68) from State University of New York at Albany and his Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration ('72) from Florida State University. He began his career as an instructor of Botany at Paul Smith's College in New York. At the age of 36, Dr. Breuder became the youngest community college president in the nation at Pennsylvania College of Technology (formerly Williamsport Area Community College) in Williamsport, Penn. Prior to arriving at College of DuPage in January 2009, he was President of William Rainey Harper College in Palatine, Ill., where he had served since 1998.

Additional distinctions he has received include Illinois Senate recognition for more than 32 years of leadership in community colleges, the Florida State University College of Education Distinguished Alumni Award, the Association of Community College Trustees CEO Award, Central Region, and the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations (NCMPR) National Pacesetter Award, among others.

Considered a national expert on community college administration, Dr. Breuder is frequently invited to make presentations to inform other education decision-makers. He has made formal presentations to organizations such as the United State Congress House Sub-Committee on Science, Space and Technology, the IBM Higher Education Executive Conference, Toyota Motor Corporation (in Japan), the Illinois Board of Higher Education, the Pennsylvania House Committees on Education and Commerce and Sub Committee on Tax Reform, Standard & Poor's Ratings Group, Moody's Investors Service.

Dr. Breuder is currently leading a statewide initiative to allow Illinois community colleges to offer baccalaureate degrees in select technological fields.

For more information, please contact Joe Moore, COD Vice President of Marketing and Communications, at (630) 942-2371 or moorej7718@cod.edu.