Allegheny College’s Board of Trustees named former Provost and Dean of the College, Dr. Ron Cole, as President, on an acting basis, effective September 20, 2022.

Nationally, Cole is a speaker on campus leadership for the Council of Independent Colleges workshop for division and department chairs and has been a panelist at national higher ed conferences on topics that include leading transformational change, crisis communication, global internships, community engaged learning, and the value of the liberal arts. Cole was the recipient of the Council of Independent Colleges Chief Academic Officer Award in 2021.
As a faculty member, Cole taught at all levels of the curriculum, including first-year and transfer student seminars and experiential interdisciplinary travel courses to Turkey, South Africa, and Alaska. He co-led the establishment of a new cohort program funded by the National Science Foundation to increase diversity and success of students in STEM fields. As a teacher-scholar Cole established an active student-focused undergraduate research program with over $500k of funding from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, and the American Chemical Society, has over 100 published articles, book chapters, and conference presentations, and received the Allegheny College Thoburn Award for excellence in teaching. Before his career in higher education, Cole worked in the environmental consulting industry.
Cole is active in his local community, serving on the Meadville Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Fund Board which manages and invests contributions toward College scholarships for high school students and oversees and coordinates an after-school and summer mentoring program for middle school students to advance educational opportunity and equity. Cole is a certified martial arts instructor having taught classes for youth and adults and has played violin as a member of the Allegheny College Civic Symphony.