José Luis Cruz
President, Northern Arizona University
José Luis Cruz is the chair of the board of directors of The Education Trust and President of Northern Arizona University (NAU).
Prior to joining NAU, Dr. Cruz Rivera served as President of Lehman College of The City University of New York and as Executive Vice Chancellor and University Provost of the 25-campus system. During his tenure at CUNY, Lehman enhanced its national reputation as an engine of social mobility and the Central Office of Academic Affairs registered important accomplishments on behalf of the University’s more than 20,000 faculty members, 26,000 professional staff, and 500,000 students and learners.
Before assuming his current role at CUNY, Dr. Cruz served as president of Lehman College/CUNY and was provost and vice president of academic affairs at California State University, Fullerton. Previously, he served as vice president of higher education policy and practice at The Education Trust; vice president of student affairs at the University of Puerto Rico system; and chair of the electrical and computer engineering department and dean of academic affairs at the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez.
José Luis serves on the boards of the Data Quality Campaign and the Institute for Higher Education Policy, is a member of the advisory board of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), serves on the steering committee of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration and is a commissioner on the Postsecondary Value Commission.
Cruz is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a past recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and a patented inventor. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Puerto Rico–Mayagüez and earned master’s and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology.
