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Joseph P. Zolner is an adjunct lecturer on education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE). From 1999 to 2018, he served as senior director of the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education, a role that included service as educational chair of the Management Development Program (MDP), educational chair of the Leadership Institute for Academic Librarians (LIAL), educational chair of Library Leadership in a Digital Age (LLDA), educational co-chair of the Institute for Educational Management (IEM), and responsibility for the quality, relevance, and variety of executive education programs offered by HGSE for the higher education community. During his many years of HIHE-related work, Zolner taught and collaborated with thousands of higher education leaders from multiple types of institutions and a wide range of administrative and leadership responsibilities.
Prior to his work at Harvard University, Zolner served as director of the Graduate Management Institute at Union College and director of the Graduate School of Business Administration at Northeastern University. He has also held appointments as assistant dean of the College at Dartmouth College and assistant dean of students and assistant director of admissions at Union College. Zolner also worked for Goodmeasure, Inc., a corporate consulting firm focused on innovation, creativity, and the management of strategic organizational change that served a Fortune 100 client base.
Zolner is a member of the Board of Trustees of the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, where he serves as chair of the Task Force on Board Effectiveness, chair of the Development Committee, and a member of the Executive Committee and Program Committee. Previously, he completed a twelve-year term on the Board of Trustees at the New England College of Optometry serving on the Executive, Academic Affairs, Development, and Presidential Search Committees.
Zolner received a Doctor of Education degree in higher education and a Master of Education degree in administration, planning, and social policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a Master of Public and Private Management degree from the Yale School of Management, and a Bachelor of Science degree from Union College. His academic and consulting interests include leadership, board governance, higher education leadership development, team effectiveness, and the higher education curriculum change process.