Leo Lambert


Leo Michael Lambert, Ph.D. is President Emeritus of Elon University, a private university located in Elon, North Carolina. Lambert served as Elon's eighth president from 1999 to 2018 and assumed the title of President Emeritus on March 1, 2018. He was succeeded by Connie Ledoux Book.

President of Elon University

During his tenure, Lambert established Elon as a liberal arts university. The academic climate of the campus was strengthened through investments in faculty development, library resources, honors and fellows programs for outstanding students, study abroad programs, undergraduate research, volunteer service and leadership education.
In 2001 Elon College became Elon University, and the NewCentury@Elon strategic plan was developed under Lambert’s leadership. During his tenure, Elon College, the College of Arts and Sciences, was established from three formerly separate divisions, and the School of Communications and the School of Education moved from departmental to school status. In 2006, Lambert led the drive to open the Elon University School of Law in downtown Greensboro, North Carolina.
New facilities constructed during Lambert’s tenure included Carol Grotnes Belk Library, Rhodes Stadium, Belk Track and White Field, the six-building Academic Village, Ernest A. Koury Sr. Business Center, Ellington Health Center, The Oaks residence hall complex, Colonnades Dining Hall and the Colonnades residence halls, and several new residence halls and a commons building in Danieley Center. The university expanded to include the South Campus.

Leadership positions

Lambert served on the national and North Carolina boards of Campus Compact and as a founding board member and president’s council chair of Project Pericles, a national organization that encourages students to become civically engaged in their communities. Elon University has twice been named one of the nation’s top universities for community service in the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll.
Lambert served as a member of the NCAA Presidential Task Force on the Future of Division I Athletics and chairing the NCAA Committee on Athletics Certification.
In 2008, Lambert was appointed to the Commission on Effective Leadership by the American Council on Education. In 2009, he was named a director of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Awards and recognitions

Lambert has written extensively about post-secondary education and is co-editor of a book about university teaching, published by Syracuse University Press in 2005. His alma mater, the State University of New York at Geneseo, awarded him an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 2002.

Personal life

Leo Michael Lambert married Laurie Fordham June 11, 1977. They have two daughters.

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