Rutgers-New Brunswick Recruits Colorado College Vice President as ACE Fellow

Emily Chan, Colorado College’s vice president and dean of faculty, has joined the Rutgers University­–New Brunswick Chancellor-Provost Office as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow for the spring semester.

While at Rutgers, she will engage in the campus’s academic master planning process as well as other key initiatives.

“I am excited to be fulfilling my fellowship at a place as large and complex as Rutgers University,” Chan said. “I share the university’s collective ambition to see how its drive toward excellence in such a diverse environment can come together in such a transformational moment.”

Chan, a professor of psychology, has primary responsibility for faculty affairs at Colorado College, including faculty recruitment and hiring, faculty career development and growth, departmental and curricular affairs, and a broad range of strategic and long-range planning activities. She previously served the college as chairperson of its Faculty Executive Committee, director of its Bridge Scholars Program and associate director of Race, Ethnicity and Migration Studies. She also chaired the college’s Task Force for Academic Continuity to ensure continued delivery of its academic programs at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Previously, Chan served as Colorado College’s associate dean of academic programs and strategic initiatives.

“Dr. Chan has earned widespread respect for her teaching and commitment to student learning, and she is known as a collaborative change-maker and mentor,” said Rutgers University­–New Brunswick Chancellor-Provost Francine Conway. “Because of her work with faculty, including facilitating and supporting professional excellence, integrity and diversity to bolster a thriving faculty community, she will be a tremendous asset to Rutgers University as we chart our own course for the future and clarify our strategies for accomplishing our academic mission through the academic master planning process.” 

Chan is one of 52 emerging college and university leaders selected for the 2021-2022 class of the ACE Fellows Program, the longest-running leadership development program in the United States. Since the program’s inception, the fellows program has prepared more than 2,000 faculty, staff and administrators for senior positions in college and university leadership through its cohort-based mentorship model. During the placement, fellows observe and work with senior administrators at their host institutions, attend decision-making meetings and provide a fresh perspective on emerging or ongoing institutional challenges. More than 80 percent of fellows since the program’s inception in 1965 have gone on to serve as chief executive officers, chief academic officers and other cabinet-level positions.