Paula Brownlee

Paula Brownlee consults actively with presidents and boards of trustees on institution-wide planning, board and presidential evaluation, board structure, and roles and responsibilities, and with campuses on educational reform initiatives and leadership development.  She undertakes a variety of institutional reviews, campus consulting, and speaking engagements. As a consultant and facilitator for AGB, she leads board retreats and presidential and board assessments.

Through this year, Brownlee has served as co-Chair of the board of Academic Search Inc., and Vice-chair of the board of the American Academic Leadership Institute (AALI), formerly the Academic Search Consultation Service (she chaired this board for 4 years);  likewise, she served on the board of Wilson College (PA) and on the National Advisory Council of Maryville College.  She is on the Board as life trustee of the University of Rochester. She has worked for the NASA/UNCF Minority Fellows program for several years, leading curriculum and candidates’ reviews, and as speaker. For many years she served as facilitator and mentor in the American Council on Education (ACE) Fellows year-long program. 

She retired as president emerita of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), after eight years leading this higher education organization of member institutions. Previously, Brownlee was president and professor of chemistry at Hollins University for nine years.  Before moving to Hollins, she served Union College as dean of the faculty and professor of chemistry. Previously, she was at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, as a dean and tenured faculty member in chemistry.

She has chaired the boards of the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and of the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE). She served on the National Association for Independent Colleges and Universities’ (NAICU) board executive committee.  Prior to joining AAC&U, Brownlee served on a range of corporate, hospital, symphony orchestra, and science museum boards.  She was involved in CEO searches and CEO performance evaluations on several of these boards.

Brownlee received her bachelors and doctoral degrees in chemistry from Oxford University and held a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Rochester before working briefly in chemical industry. She holds 21 honorary doctorate degrees and is an elected honorary fellow of Somerville College, Oxford University.