Drew University economist named ACE Fellow here

Lehigh President John Simon has announced that Marc Tomljanovich, a professor of economics at Drew University, will spend the 2016-17 academic year at Lehigh as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow.

The Fellows Program is designed to strengthen American higher education by preparing faculty and staff for senior leadership positions in college and university administration.

Simon will serve as Tomljanovich’s primary mentor during his year at Lehigh. Lehigh Provost Pat Farrell will serve as secondary mentor. “Lehigh is delighted to be a host institution for this prestigious program,” said Simon. “I look forward to working closely with Marc throughout this academic year.” 

Tomljanovich’s selection of Lehigh as a host institution reflects Lehigh’s reputation and commitment to excellence, said Sherri Lind Hughes, director of the ACE Fellows Program and a 2002-03 ACE Fellow.

“An ACE Fellow chooses an institution not only for its rigorous academic environment and high-quality efforts to educate students,” said Hughes, “but also for its strong desire to invest in the future of higher education senior leadership as well.”

ACE Fellows are nominated by the senior administration of their institutions. Tomljanovich is one of 29 Fellows comprising the 2016-17 cohort at colleges and universities across the nation.

Nearly 2,000 higher education leaders have participated in the ACE Fellows Program since the program was established in 1965. More than 80 percent of Fellows have gone on to serve as senior leaders of colleges and universities.

Tomljanovich is the director of Drew’s Wall Street Semester Program. His areas of study and teaching include macroeconomics, money and banking, financial markets, corporate finance, and time-series econometrics. His specific research interests are the effects of central bank transparency on financial markets, regional income convergence, and the effects of fiscal policy on long-run economic growth.

The goal of the ACE Fellow Program, said Hughes, is to condense years of on-the-job experience and skills development into a single academic year. Fellows are included in high-level decision-making while taking part in administrative activities at their host institutions. They also investigate issues of interest to their home institutions.