Profile

Ricardo Fernández is President of Lehman College of The City University of New York. Throughout his career, Fernández has focused on how to improve educational outcomes, especially on programs to provide the preparation and encouragement needed for more minority students to enter and succeed in college. His publications deal with the causes of Hispanic school dropout, the desegregation of Hispanic students, and bilingual education policy.

From 1973 until 1990, he was affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he rose to the position of Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Professor of Educational Policy and Community Studies. Fernández is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Council of Education (ACE) and is Past Chair of the Board of the American Association of Higher Education and of the Governing Board of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU). Other current affiliations include the boards of directors of the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) in San Antonio, TX, Multicultural Education Training and Advocacy (META), and the Hispanic Educational Telecommunication System (HETS), a national distance learning consortium of 18 colleges and universities. In 2003 he became a member of the Frito-Lay (North America) Latino/Hispanic Advisory Board. Fernández received a Bachelor's in Philosophy and a Master's in Spanish Literature from Marquette University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from Princeton University.