Washington, DC (March 25, 2015)—The American Council on Education (ACE), announced today that Dr. Astrid Sheil, Chair, Department of Accounting & Finance in the College of Business and Public Administration at California State University San Bernardino, has been named an ACE Fellow for academic year 2015-16.

 

The ACE Fellows Program, established in 1965, is designed to strengthen institutions and leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing emerging leaders for senior positions in college and university administration. Forty-seven Fellows, nominated by the senior administration of their institutions, were selected this year following a rigorous application process.

 

ACE President Molly Corbett Broad noted that the Fellows Program is celebrating its 50^th anniversary this academic year, and that over those five decades nearly 2,000 higher education leaders have participated, with more than 300 Fellows having served as chief executive officers of colleges or universities and more than 1,300 having served as provosts, vice presidents and deans.

 

“The ACE Fellows Program enters its second half century committed to further growing and strengthening the nation’s premier higher education leadership development program,” Broad said. “The diverse and talented 2015-16 Fellows class embodies why the program has been such a vital contributor to expanding the leadership pipeline for our nation’s colleges and universities.”

 

Dr. Astrid Sheil is the coauthor of Dynamic Public Relations: The 24/7 PR Cycle published by Pearson. In addition to her duties as chair of accounting and finance, Dr. Sheil teaches courses in advanced managerial writing, and negotiation and bargaining in the MBA program. Before becoming an academic, Dr. Sheil was a senior-level communication executive for two Fortune 500 paper companies, and a global director for an international chemical company based in Helsinki, Finland. She holds a B.S. in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and an M.S. and PhD in Organizational Communication from the University of Tennessee.

 

The ACE Fellows Program combines retreats, interactive learning opportunities, campus visits and placement at another higher education institution to condense years of on-the-job experience and skills development into a single semester or year. Each ACE Fellow will focus on an issue of concern to the (nominating/sponsoring institution) while spending the next academic year (or semester or some other time frame) working with a college or university president and other senior officers at a host institution.

 

ACE Fellows also attend three retreats on higher education issues organized by ACE and visit campuses and other higher education-related organizations across the United States and abroad as they work to read extensively in the field and engage in interactive learning opportunities to increase their understanding of higher education challenges and opportunities.

 

About ACE

Founded in 1918, ACE is the major coordinating body for all the nation’s higher education institutions, representing more than 1,600 college and university presidents, and more than 200 related associations, nationwide. It provides leadership on key higher education issues and influences public policy through advocacy. For more information, please visit www.acenet.edu or follow ACE on Twitter @ACEducation.