Meet Our Speaker: Dr. Paul Gaston

Dr. Paul L. Gaston, Professor of English at Kent State University, served the last eight years as the Provost of that institution. Upon his retirement in July, 2007, the Kent State Board of Trustees honored Dr. Gaston with the title “Trustees Professor” and passed a resolution of appreciation noting that he has “advanced the quality of teaching and learning, the breadth and vitality of research and scholarship, the quality and diversity of the faculty, and the effective extension of academic programs throughout Northeast Ohio and beyond.”

Dr. Gaston moved to Kent State in 1999 following six years as Provost and Executive Vice President of Northern Kentucky University. Prior to moving to Kentucky, he served as Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and as Associate Vice President for Academic Programs at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville. He earned the PhD and MA in English from the University of Virginia, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a DuPont Fellow, and a Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellow.

In his administrative career, he has emphasized hiring and retaining for diversity, academic engagement with institutional fund-raising, assessment, strategic planning, and the development of general education curricula. In addition to serving institutions and organizations as a consultant on these issues, he is a member of the faculty for both the AAC&U Institute on General Education and the Institute for Liberal Education at the University of North Carolina--Asheville.

He remains active as a scholar. He is the author of two books and of articles on subjects ranging from interart analogies, the poetry of George Herbert, and the fiction of Walker Percy, to the assessment of educational outcomes. In 1989, following his invitation to speak at the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Baseball Hall of Fame, his presentation was cited by USA Today  as one of five leading examples of effective academic writing on baseball. 

He serves currently as chair of the board of the Ohio Learning Network and as vice-chair of the board of the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors. In addition, he has served or is now serving on the boards of the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the Council on Academic Affairs of the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges. He served as a consultant/evaluator for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools for more than a decade and now serves once again in that capacity within the North Central Association. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Golden Key, and Omicron Delta Kappa.

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