UI&U Elects Two New Board of Trustee Members

Matthew Quinn

Dr. Matthew J. Quinn and Susan Porter Robinson are leaders in higher education

CINCINNATI – Union Institute & University (UI&U), a private, non-profit university headquartered in Cincinnati is proud to announce that Dr. Matthew J. Quinn and Susan Porter Robison, both leaders in higher education, have been elected to the Union Institute & University Board of Trustees.

“We are honored that Matthew Quinn and Susan Porter Robinson have chosen to join our board,” said Dr. Roger H. Sublett, president of Union Institute & University. “Their leadership will prove invaluable as we move the university into the future and continue to find the best ways to provide innovative and practical degree completion options for the adult learner who wants to make a difference in their lives and in their communities.”

Susan Porter Robinson

Matthew J. Quinn is the founding executive director of the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation, established in August 2000. He became emeritus executive director in September 2009. The Foundation’s mission is to advance the education of high-achieving students who have financial need. With an initial endowment of over $600 million, the foundation, since its inception, has provided more than $70 million in scholarship support to several thousand students through its three scholarship programs and also awarded approximately $30 million in major grants to organizations which enhance the foundation’s work.

Prior to working for the foundation, Quinn served as president of Carroll College in Helena, MT, for 11 years. He also served as vice president for academic affairs at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia; as dean of the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY; as a director for New Jersey State Universities Offices; and as director of public relations and publications for College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.

Quinn received a B.A. in classics from Fordham University, a Ph.L in philosophy, with honors, from Woodstock College, an M.A. in English from Fordham University, a Ph.D. in management of higher education, with highest distinction, from Boston College, and a J.D. from Fordham University School of Law. Quinn is a member of the Pennsylvania Bar.

He has served on many boards, including the American Association of University Administrators, as an advisor for the Kellogg National Leadership Program as part of the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, and on The Council on Women in Higher Education, an ACE commission.

Quinn currently serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Phi Theta Kappa Foundation, as well as on the Board of Directors of the Council of Independent Colleges and on the Advisory Board of the Loudoun Education Foundation.

Susan Porter Robinson held various positions at the American Council on Education from 1984 until 2009, culminating in her role as vice president for lifelong learning from 1997 until 2009. In this role, Porter Robinson supervised and oversaw the Center’s corporate and military programs, its $5 million budget, and 35 staff members. She also served as a liaison between the association community and presidents of colleges and universities, all U.S. armed services and the Department of Defense, reporters and media, business executives, labor leaders, distance learning executives, national policymakers, and international leaders in higher education and lifelong learning.

Before becoming vice president of lifelong learning, Porter Robinson served as acting director of ACE CREDIT program, director of outreach and communications for ACE’s Center for Adult Learning and Education Credentials, and editor of GED Items and of the GED Writing and Literature and the Arts tests. She has also served as an instructor of English and composition at various universities in the United States, and as an instructor of English as a Foreign Language at the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain.

A national and international speaker for more than 25 years, Robinson has a B.A. in secondary education and English from Marywood University in Scranton, PA, an M.A. in English from Duke University, and a certificate in Contemplative Leadership of Prayer Groups and Retreats from the Shalem Institute on Spiritual Formation in Washington, D.C. She received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Excelsior College in 2005 for a lifetime of advancing adult learning in higher education. Her writings in adult learning and psychology have been widely published.

Robinson’s service on boards includes the editorial and research boards and an external advisor of the University of Hong Kong’s School of Professional and Continuing Education, the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (a lifetime appointment by the Office of the Secretary of Defense), the USDA Board, as appointed by former Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman, the Servicemembers Opportunity Colleges, and the Coalition of Lifelong Learning Organizations.

For more information contact Nicole Hamilton, UI&U public relations manager, at 513-487-1194 or at Nicole.hamilton@myunion.edu.