Former Gates Foundation Official Will Lead Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education

Daniel Greenstein, a former director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Postsecondary Success program, will become chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, the system announced on Monday.

Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education

Greenstein, who stepped down from the Gates Foundation in March, will take office in September. During his six-year tenure at the Gates Foundation, Greenstein oversaw a strategy that combined classroom instruction and online courses, developed predictive analysis for advising students, worked on ways to keep students on their degree tracks, and collected substantial data on student progress.

Greenstein also worked on and carried out a strategy to reduce attainment gaps between minority students and their white counterparts, and to increase degrees awarded.

Recently, the Gates Foundation directed money to public colleges, awarding grants to 11 public colleges with the University Innovation Alliance. The foundation also gave to 29 colleges and two state systems, dubbed the Frontier Set.

In his new role, Greenstein will lead a state system that serves roughly 102,000 students and faces serious financial challenges. Nine of the system’s 14 campuses have seen fall enrollment drop by double-digit percentages since 2009. West Chester University was the only campus in the system with annual increases during that time. System administrators and state leaders are grappling with how to keep the system’s colleges open, whether by developing new niches for the campuses or even by consolidating them.

A report, commissioned by state lawmakers and prepared by the Rand Corporation, recommended that the system consider, among other options, reducing its 14 universities into five.

In a blog post on Monday, Greenstein praised the state system’s plan to tackle its challenges.

“Most of public higher education is facing serious challenges — escalating costs, declining enrollments, unsustainable business models, and erosion in the trust the public has had in the value of a university degree. But unlike much of public higher education, the state system is confronting these challenges head-on,” Greenstein wrote. “The system redesign that was launched two years ago, when the state system took a hard look at itself, has pushed it to the forefront of innovation nationally. It is comprehensive in its scope, ambitious, and critically focused on the needs of our students today and going forward.”

In a statement, Cynthia D. Shapira, chairwoman of the system’s Board of Governors, wrote that she hoped Greenstein’s leadership would put the state system at the top of public universities in the nation.

“Dan comes to us with an incredible level of knowledge and experience and the demonstrated temperament necessary to achieve great things,” Shapira wrote. “He will use all of that to help achieve excellence for our students and stakeholders, and — indeed — to write the template for 21st-century public higher education in the nation.”

Fernanda Zamudio-Suaréz is breaking-news editor. Follow her on Twitter @FernandaZamudio, or email her at fzamudiosuarez@chronicle.com.