DISTINGUISHED LEADER IN EDUCATION 2013
Dr. Susan H. Fuhrman
President, Teachers College
Dr. Susan H. Fuhrman is the President of Teachers College, Columbia University, founding Director and Chair of the Management Committee of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE), and President of the National Academy of Education.
Fuhrman’s substantial leadership record includes her term as Dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education from 1995-2006, where she was also the school’s George and Diane Weiss Professor of Education. While at the University of Pennsylvania, Fuhrman was influential in creating a new community school as a partnership between the University and the city of Philadelphia. She is a former Vice President of the American Educational Research Association as well as a former Trustee Board member of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and a current non-executive Director of Pearson plc, the international education and publishing company.
Fuhrman received bachelors and masters’ degrees in history from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in political science and education from Teachers College and Columbia University. Her research interests include accountability in education, intergovernmental relationships, and standards-based reform, and she has written widely on education policy and finance.
At TC, Fuhrman created a new cross-sector policy field through the department of Education Policy and Social Analysis, established TC as a home for the study and application of new knowledge about learning – from cognitive psychology to learning analytics, and oversaw the opening of the first university-supported public k-8 school in Manhattan – the Teachers College Community School. She has also instituted multi-year financial planning, strengthened research funding, enhanced and given new strategic focus to international activities, and revitalized development and alumni relations efforts. She has increased financial aid, starting a new program for fully funding doctoral study.
Fuhrman’s work has been recognized by a wide variety of international, national, state, and local organizations. In March 2008, Fuhrman was one of five women honored by New York City Comptroller William Thompson at an event co-sponsored by the Women’s City Club of New York and the League of Women Voters as part of Women’s History Month. Fuhrman has also received the 2007 Hunter College High School alumni award, the 2008 Distinguished Leaders in Education Award from the Rutgers Graduate School of Education, and the 2008 Northwestern University Alumni Merit Award. In 2007, Crain’s New York Business named Fuhrman one of the 100 most influential women in business in New York City.
Fuhrman lives in New Jersey with her husband, Dr. Robert Fuhrman; they have three sons and two grandchildren. #
