The three-day Presidential Conclave will bring together approximately 40 prominent university

presidents and rectors, leaders of major national and international organizations, and world

leaders committed to higher education. These Presidential Conclave members will meet to develop

global proclamations on the future of higher education. The Conclave will address critical

worldwide issues in higher education and will advance an agenda for higher-education opportunity,

access, and excellence. The published Presidential Conclave proclamations will ensure that the

conversation begun during the Conclave continues and that the agenda outlined in each

proclamation is implemented.

Conference attendees will have opportunities to interact with these leaders from different countries

and universities throughout the conference.

West Chester University President Greg R. Weisenstein, Conference Co-

chair

Greg R. Weisenstein is the 14th president of West Chester University. Before

coming to WCU in March 2009, Dr. Weisenstein was the provost and vice

president for academic affairs at the University of North Dakota. Among his

extensive national and international experience, he served on advisory

committees under Presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H. W.

Bush. For the U.S. Department of State, he led the restructuring of higher

education in the Republic of Moldova. His work has included serving as the chief negotiator for

international agreements in South America and Europe and holding direct talks with former Soviet

President Mikhail Gorbachev. Since coming to WCU, President Weisenstein has been appointed to

the U.S. Army Committee on Education and the NCAA Division II Baseball Rules Committee. He

continues to raise WCU’s reputation on the international level by leading the University in the

development of collaborations with the American College of Norway, Moss, Norway, and the

Universidad Nacional, Heredia, Costa Rica. Dr. Weisenstein has made tremendous strides in

elevating the recognition of West Chester University as one of the top regional comprehensive

universities in the country. Greg Weisenstein earned his bachelor's degree in history and geology

and master's degree in special education from the University of Washington and earned his

doctorate in administration and special education from the University of Kansas. He is the author

of four books and more than 65 publications and has given more than 100 keynote presentations at

national and international conferences. His numerous honors include State Educator of the Year,

Best Program of the Year, and the Teaching and Advising Excellence Award.

Universidad Nacional Rectora Sandra León Coto, Conference Co-chair

Sandra León Coto has been the rector of the Universidad Nacional (UNA), Costa

Rica, since 2010. Before becoming rector, she was the university’s vice rector

for academic affairs and a member of the University Council. She also has long

service as a professor in UNA’s Department of Chemistry. Her academic

specialty is industrial chemistry, including the areas of water quality, soil

chemistry, and research methods. Throughout her career at UNA, Rectora León

has held a number of leadership positions. Among these, she has served as

dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, research coordinator for the Department of Chemistry, and

coordinator for UNA’s Laboratory of Marine Chemistry. Rectora León was instrumental in

developing the university’s program in science education with an emphasis on chemistry,

undergraduate degree program in industrial chemistry, and master’s-degree program in

management and environmental studies. The courses she has taught have helped to prepare

students for careers in science education, veterinary medicine, forestry, agricultural sciences, and

the biological sciences. In addition, she has made major contributions through university extension

work for the coastal communities of the Gulf of Nicoya region. Rectora León’s research has been

extensively published in national and international scholarly journals, and she has organized and

participated in numerous international conferences, seminars, and other academic events. She is a

member of the International Ocean Institute Steering Committee and has long service as a member

of the Board of the American Association of Marine Sciences. The Costa Rican Ministry of Science

and Technology has recognized Rectora León for her contributions in the field of science and

technology; other honors recognize her important work on behalf of the environment.

Oscar Avila is the cultural affairs officer for the Embassy of the United States, San José, Costa Rica.

Hector Alejandro Barceló has been the rector of the Instituto Universitario de

Ciencias de Salud, Argentina, since 1992 and is a professor in the university’s

Department of Pathology within the Faculty of Medicine. He is also the president

of the Hector A. Barceló Foundation for the Development of Biomedical Science

Argentina. The Barceló Foundation, created in 1991, is a nonprofit organization

whose main objective is to support and contribute to the growth and

development of and participation in the biomedical sciences in Argentina. In his

studies at the Medical University of Buenos Aires, Dr. Barceló specialized in

rheumatology and pathology. He also holds a Ph.D. in education. He has been a

member of the Argentina Association of Medicine since 1984. Among the honors he has received

are the Albert Schweitzer Gold Medal from the Academy of Medicine of Poland and full membership

in the Albert Schweitzer World Academy of Medicine. Dr. Barceló is the author of numerous

scientific publications.

J. A. Roy Bodden, JP is president of the University College of the Cayman

Islands (UCCI), a position he has held since 2008. Previously he was a lecturer

at UCCI, served as a member of the Legislative Assembly of the Cayman Islands,

and was a justice of the peace and the Cayman Islands minister of education,

human resources, and culture. A highly regarded community activist and

cultural historian, President Bodden is the author of such notable books as The

Cayman Islands in Transition: The Politics, History, and Sociology of a Changing

Society; Patronage, Personalities, and Parties: Caymanian Politics from 1950-

2000; and the 2012 publication Political Revolution of the Cayman Islands: From

the Vestry to the Premier. He is the 2011 recipient of the Trent University,

Canada, Distinguished Alumnus Award. His graduate studies in educational administration were at

Queen’s University.

Olman Segura Bonilla has been the executive president of the National

Institute of Learning of Costa Rica since 2010. Prior to his nomination to that

position, he served as president of the Universidad Nacional (UNA). During

his tenure at UNA, he was elected general secretary of the web of Macro-

Universities of Latin America and the Caribbean. Among his other notable

leadership positions, he served as president of the University Executive

Council of America and as director of the International Center of Economic

Politics for the Sustainable Development of Universidad Nacional. Dr. Segura

was also a professor for UNA’s graduate programs in Economic Politics for

Central America and the Caribbean and in International Commerce. Dr.

Segura earned his PhD in economics, with an emphasis on innovation and technological change,

from the University of Aalborg, Denmark. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the

University of London and baccalaureate degrees from UNA and the University of Wisconsin, United

States.

John Cavanaugh became chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of

Higher Education in 2008. Previously he served as president of the

University of West Florida, where he created the Academic Technology

Center and was one of the original proponents of the Vince Whibbs

Community Maritime Park, the largest public-private partnership in

Pensacola history. From 1999 to 2002, he served as provost and vice

chancellor for academic affairs at the University of North Carolina at

Wilmington. He also held various positions at the University of Delaware,

including vice provost for academic programs and planning and associate

provost for graduate studies. Dr. Cavanaugh earned a bachelor’s degree in

psychology with high honors from the University of Delaware and his master’s degree and

doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of

Minnesota’s Center for Research in Human Learning and the Institute of Child Development and

served as a Fellow with the American Council on Education, American Psychological Association,

and Gerontological Society of America. In addition, he was a Charter Fellow of the Association for

Psychological Science.

Javier Cevallos was appointed president of Kutztown University in 2002.

He began his career in education in 1981 as an assistant professor of

Spanish at the University of Maine at Orono. In 1984, he moved to the

University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he became an associate

professor and then full professor. In 1994, he was asked to serve as faculty

advisor to the provost. In 1996, he was selected as a Fellow by the

American Council on Education and spent his fellowship with the president

of Wesleyan University. Upon his return to UMass, Dr. Cevallos became

chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Soon after, he was

appointed vice chancellor for student affairs, a position he held until joining Kutztown University as

its president. Born in Cuenca, Ecuador, he earned his bachelor’s degree at the University of Puerto

Rico at Mayagüez and his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana.

Gary Hagen has been the president of Mayville State University, North

Dakota, since 2006. During his earlier career at Mayville State University,

he served as a professor of business and computing, as chairperson of the

Business Division, as the institution’s chief information officer, and as vice

president for academic affairs. Beyond his university, he is an active

leader in planning, technology, and economic-development commissions,

boards, and committees. Dr. Hagen’s undergraduate degree in business

administration and his master’s degree and doctorate in business and

vocational education are from the University of North Dakota.

David Holveck is the president, the chief executive officer, and a director of

Endo Pharmaceuticals, a specialty healthcare-solutions company. Before

joining Endo Pharmaceuticals in 2008, Mr. Holveck was the president of

Johnson & Johnson Development Corporation. He joined Johnson & Johnson, a

diversified healthcare company, as a company group chairman in 1999

following Johnson & Johnson’s acquisition of the biotechnology company

Centocor, Inc. Mr. Holveck was the chief executive officer of Centocor at the

time of the acquisition. He joined Centocor in 1983 and held several executive

positions. In 1992, he assumed the role of president and chief operating

officer; later that year he was named president and chief executive officer. Prior to joining

Centocor, he held positions at General Electric Company, Corning Glass Works, and Abbott

Laboratories. He has also served on the boards of directors of several organizations. David Holveck

was instrumental in the creation of West Chester University’s groundbreaking Pharmaceutical

Product Development baccalaureate program.

Muriel Howard became president of the American Association of State Colleges

and Universities in 2009 following a 13-year tenure as president of Buffalo

State College. Earlier she was vice president for public service and urban affairs

at the University of Buffalo, where she had served in a number of leadership

capacities for more than 23 years. During her time in western New York, Dr.

Howard served on a number of civic, educational, and cultural organizations,

including the New York State Department of Education Commissioner’s Council

on Higher Education, the New York State Blue Ribbon Commission on Youth Leadership, and the

State University of New York (SUNY) Advisory Council on Teacher Education. She also served on

the SUNY board of directors for the Center for Russia and co-chaired the SUNY Provost’s Advisory

Task Force on General Education, establishing guidelines for instituting general-education curricula

throughout the SUNY system.

Vladimir Laptev is vice rector for research at the Alexander I. Herzen State

Pedagogical University of Russia, a post he has held since 1990. He is also a

professor of physics teaching methods. A leading figure in higher education in

Russia, Dr. Laptev is chairman of the Dissertation Council, which oversees the

awarding of doctorates in education, computer science, and mathematics. In

1998, a Russian presidential decree honored his great contributions to

science, and in 2000, he was elected a full member of the State Academy of

Sciences. In 2004 and 2005, Dr. Laptev received the highest awards given by

the Ministry of Education and Science. In addition, in 2007, the St. Petersburg

government recognized his outstanding achievements in the field of higher and secondary

vocational education. Vice Rector Laptev holds a doctorate and post-doctorate in physics.

Krista Lauritzen is the administrative director of the American College of

Norway, a position she has held since the college’s founding in 1991. She was

instrumental in developing the framework for the American College of Norway

program and for instituting curricula that serve the international student

body. She is an active leader in encouraging international education and student

mobility. Krista Lauritzen has participated in many national and international

committees. She is currently a member of the U.S. Task Force on Education,

which is spearheaded by the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway, and is a committee

member for the upcoming conference Working Forum on Children’s Rights. She

is also a board member of Campus Moss—furthering higher education in Moss, Norway. Krista

Lauritzen formerly served as vice president of Worldview Global University Norway/Sri Lanka. She

received her higher education at Augsburg College. During her career, she has received awards for

her leadership and contributions to humanitarian and educational programs.

Luis Guillermo Carpio Malavassi is the rector of the Universidad

Estatal a Distancia (UNED), where he previously served as

executive vice rector. UNED was created in 1977 and was the first

institution of its kind in Costa Rica. Rector Carpio holds graduate

degrees in strategic management from UNED and in business

administration from the Universidad Internacional de las

Americas. His bachelor’s degree in business administration with an

emphasis in human resources is from the Instituto Tecnológico of Costa Rica (ITCR). Earlier in

his career with UNED, Rector Carpio headed the Office of Accounting and Finance and served

as the university’s chief financial officer. He has taught in the ITCR School of Management and

also served as executive director of the Costa Rican Foundation for Distance Education.

Muhammad Mukhtar holds the positions of vice chancellor and professor at

the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Dr. Mukhtar earned his

doctorate in biosciences at Drexel University, Philadelphia. He also holds

specialized certificates in research management, public health, and

bioinformatics. In the U.S., he served in a number of academic and

administrative positions. Then in 2007, he joined the Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid

Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan, as a professor of

biochemistry. Dr. Mukhtar’s research laboratory has studied the mechanisms

of viral entry into the brain and their implications for antiretroviral therapy

and explored the role of cholesterol-depleting drugs in HIV-related neuronal

injury. Dr. Mukhtar and his laboratory have received several awards from the U.S. National

Institutes of Health, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, and the Higher Education Commission of

Pakistan. He serves as the managing editor of Frontiers in Bioscience, is on the editorial board of

several national and International journals, and has numerous scholarly publications to his

credit.

In 1989, Steinar Opstad founded the American College of Norway, in Moss,

Norway. He is the retired vice president of the Confederation of Norwegian

Business and Industry. He is also among Norway's leading communication

experts, scientists, and humanitarians. In 2010, the king of Norway awarded Dr.

Opstad the Gold Medal of Merit. In addition to authoring several journal articles,

he has written ten textbooks on leadership and related topics, six books on

management, three books on communication, two works of fiction, and one

volume on education. Dr. Opstad has helped developing countries strengthen

their economies and their social-welfare and educational systems. Much of his

work has been in Asia, where he partnered with the United Nations and other international

organizations on a variety of projects. Worldview International Foundation, which he cofounded in

1979 and chaired, has brought communication technologies to 31 developing countries and

millions of people. Dr. Opstad earned his BA and M.Ed. from University of Bergen, Norway and has a

doctorate in communication technology from Columbia Pacific University of San Rafael and is

honored with a Hon. Litt. D. from University of North Dakota.

James Ptaszynski is the senior director of Microsoft Corporation’s World Wide

Higher Education Strategy. He joined Microsoft in 1995 after spending 16

years in higher education. For six years prior to joining the company, he was

the associate dean at the Graduate School of Management at Wake Forest

University, where he was responsible for a number of administrative and

academic areas, including the school’s strategic planning and its adoption and

integration of technology. He also taught graduate-level marketing and

conducted research into trends and driving forces for change in education. In

addition to consulting for a number of businesses and not-for-profit organizations,

Dr. Ptaszynski has served on the U.S. Secretary of Education’s Commission on the Future of Higher

Education (the Spellings Commission), on the Middle East Institute for Higher Education, and as an

advisor on the Council of Senior Advisors for the International Association of University

Presidents. Dr. Ptaszynski received his undergraduate and doctoral degrees from the University of

North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.

David Raney MD – Chief Executive Officer Nuventive

David Raney has provided strategic and operational leadership for Nuventive

since its inception in 2000. Nuventive is the leading provider of software

solutions for institutional effectiveness in higher education with almost 400

college/university customers worldwide. He has been involved in business

creation since completing formal medical training. This includes founding

two innovative programs at the Children’s Hospital of Denver and leading the

creation of numerous new programs/business units at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

Dr. Raney left academic medicine in 1999 to become an entrepreneur. In addition to serving as the

CEO of Nuventive, Dr. Raney is a founder of a software company focused in health care. Dr. Raney is

a board certified child psychiatrist and holds an MD degree from Vanderbilt University.

Betty Siegel is Distinguished Chair of the Siegel Institute for Leadership, Ethics

& Character and President Emeritus at Kennesaw State University. Dr. Siegel

was the first woman to head an institution in the 35-unit University System of

Georgia and was the longest-serving woman president of a public university in

the nation. Under her administration, Kennesaw State grew from 4,000 students

with 15 baccalaureate-degree programs to an 18,000-student university with 55

baccalaureate- and graduate-degree programs. Dr. Siegel is a longtime member

and former chair of the Board of Directors of the American Association of State

Colleges and Universities (AASCU). She serves on the Commission on Women in Higher Education

as well as on numerous corporate and community boards. Since her retirement from Kennesaw

State, Dr. Siegel has implemented many global initiatives that have taken her worldwide to spread

the message of leadership, ethics, and character. Her signature program is the Oxford Conclave on

Global Ethics, an initiative launched to renew higher education's commitment to the development

of ethical leadership and to explore education’s role as a change agent for social responsibility.

Tadeusz Truskolaski, Ph.D. in economic sciences, is the mayor of the city of

Białystok, Poland, a position he has held since December 2006. He is also a

professor at the University of Białystok and the author of more than 80

scientific publications. Dr. Truskolaski is a former advisor to the Polish

Minister of Regional Development and worked in the Government Center for

Strategic Studies on national development strategy and on the operational

program development of eastern Poland. In the years 2001 -2003, Dr.

Truskolaski became the head of the Regional Policy Department in the

Marshal’s Office of the Podlaskie Region, where he contributed successfully to

the implementation of the PHARE Program. The professional team he created was able to gain

substantial European Union funding for the benefit of the Białystok and Podlaskie Regions.

Sun Weiguo is the vice president of the Xi’an Conservatory of Music, where he

began working in January 1981 after his graduation from the conservatory. He

has held the position of vice president since September 1999. In addition, he

serves as vice deputy in the International Liaison Department of the Chinese

Musicians Association.