Biography
Joanne K. Glasser is the tenth president of Bradley University, and the school’s first female president in its 114-year history. Her tenure began on August 20, 2007.
President Glasser is a dynamic and visionary leader, with extensive experience in university administration, collaborative leadership, fundraising, and community development and activity. She has made a significant impact by energizing students and faculty, leading a major advancement effort, and embracing alumni across the country.
Under President Glasser’s leadership, Bradley has undertaken several academic initiatives. Bradley unveiled its Pre-Law Center that counsels and advises students interested in the study of law, and created a Pre-Professional Health Advisory Center to assist students pursuing careers in medicine or other health-related fields. In the fall of 2009, the University began a sports communication major, a unique field of study offering students the opportunity to learn the business, production and the creative side of communications. Bradley’s Executive MBA program has been named after Dr. Theresa Falcon, the first EMBA program in the world to be named for a woman and by a woman. Recently, Bradley created programs in interactive media, game and web design, social media marketing, accelerated nursing, global supply chain management and hospitality leadership as well as a dietetics internship curriculum.
President Glasser has coordinated and unveiled the Campaign for a Bradley Renaissance, a $150 million fundraising campaign that is remaking the face of the University. The first phase of the Renaissance included construction of the $30 million Markin Family Student Recreation Center and a 600-car parking deck, both of which opened in the fall of 2008. The $50 million, 4,200-seat Renaissance Coliseum, home to the women’s basketball and volleyball teams, and the Basketball Practice Facility opened in the summer of 2010. The $12 million Hayden-Clark Alumni Center was completed in the summer of 2011. The expansion and renovation of Westlake Hall, the second oldest building on campus, was completed in 2012.
President Glasser was the driving force in boosting Bradley’s 2009 and 2010 fall freshman enrollment. The University welcomed the largest consecutive classes in 40 years, with more than 1,100 freshmen and 300 transfer students entering each year. President Glasser actively helps recruit students and their parents to the Hilltop by addressing them while they visit campus and meeting them during summer orientation sessions. She has been nationally recognized for her student engagement by the Chronicle of Higher Education, which published a story about the Office Hours she holds monthly for students.
President Glasser serves as the chair of the NCAA Division I Committee on Athletics Certification, vice chair of its Executive Subcommittee and is a member of the Board of Directors: Division I Presidential Advisory Group. She is a member of the Commission on Women in Higher Education Task Force, and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education; and a former member of the American Council on Education Commission on Effective Leadership.
President Glasser was the honorary chair of the 25th annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in Peoria, hometown of Ms. Komen and her sister, Nancy Brinker, founder of the Komen Foundation and Race for the Cure. In 2011 she was honored with the Peoria YWCA Education and Care of Children Award for her many contributions at Bradley. President Glasser also was the recipient of the Bradley University 2010 Megan Fong Inspiration Award.
A native of Baltimore, President Glasser served as president of Eastern Kentucky University, a comprehensive regional institution of more than 16,000 students in Richmond, Kentucky, for six years before coming to Bradley. Prior to leading EKU, she served as executive vice president and chief advancement officer at Towson University in Baltimore and as an attorney and labor commissioner for Baltimore County government. President Glasser is a graduate of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., the University of Maryland School of Law, and has a certificate from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education Institute for Higher Education Management in Boston.
