DR NORMAN SMITH, President Emeritus of both Elmira College and Wagner College, has logged five decades in higher education, both in the US and internationally, over 30 years as a college/university chief executive. Since Elmira, he has continued his affiliation with the Registry of College and University Presidents presently serving as Team Leader of the Board Governance and Leadership practice of the Registry’s Advisement Services branch (RAS). He is also the higher education counsel for ESOL Education headquartered in Dubai and Cairo.
Before Elmira College, he was President of Suffolk University Boston. Smith served as President of Wagner College for a decade and a half and is widely credited as having saved the College from closure and elevating Wagner to its sustained status as one of the top tier colleges in the Northeast. During his tenure, Wagner was named a College of the Year by TIME magazine.
Smith is Past-President of Richmond The American International University in London; a multi-sited residential university, accredited in both the UK and the US, with campuses in Richmond-upon-Thames, central London at Kensington Square, Rome and Florence.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Smith was at Harvard University where he was Assistant Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education and then of the John F. Kennedy School of Government as part of the inaugural management team assembled from within the University. He earned his doctorate from Harvard and was a research fellow of the Harvard Philosophy of Education Research Center.
Still earlier, he was Executive Vice President of Moore College of Art in Philadelphia, Vice President and Dean of Philadelphia University and Assistant Dean of Students at Drexel University where he earned his BS and MBA.
President Smith’s awards and honors include honorary doctorates from Richmond University, Wagner College and Philadelphia University. He is the 2018 recipient of the American Association of University Administrators’ Trachtenberg Award for Leadership in Higher Education. Drexel University, in 1991, inducted him in their inaugural society of most distinguished and accomplished alumni from among over 120,000 graduates. He received a second alumni award for professional achievement from Drexel in 2015. In 1994, New York University awarded him their Presidential Medal for excellence in higher education leadership.
Dr. Smith’s past publications include “SELECTING THE RIGHT COLLEGE,” and “TOP TIER: The Wagner College Turnaround Years,” both available from on-line book retailers. “TOP TIER” was cited by the Council of Independent Colleges as a “Book of Note” for college presidents and academic leaders. “WHAT COLLEGE TRUSTEES NEED TO KNOW” was coauthored with George J. Matthews, Chairman Emeritus of Northeastern University and Bryan Carlson, President of the Registry for College and University Presidents. “MISTAKES TO AVOID WHEN SELECTING YOUR COLLEGE” is available at no charge for download on this website in the BOOKS section. His most recent book, published in June 2017, “TOP PROBLEMS FACING COLLEGES” is available from on-line retailers.
Smith has served on numerous boards including the Executive Committee of the New York Council of Independent Colleges and Universities and as a Director of the Dime Savings Bank in New York City. He was host, in London, to the Presidential Summit of the Association of American International Colleges and Universities.
He is married to Dr. Susan Robinson a career educator and arts executive. She was a founder of AVENUES The World School in Manhattan and has been President of New York City’s Snug Harbor Cultural Center, President of the Staten Island Symphony and previously a college Associate Provost and Professor. She earned her doctorate at Harvard and is an alumna of Skidmore College where their daughter, Caroline, also graduated in 2014. Dr. Robinson has worked in public television (WGBH Boston), was a member of the New York City Mayor’s Arts Council and headed enrollment for both Moore College of Art & Design and Friends Central School.
Following several years in Boston as a designer/producer for FleischmanHillard, a global marketing corporation in Boston, Caroline returned to graduate school to earn her Master of Fine Arts in graphic design. She was awarded a teaching fellowship at the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, where she graduated in May 2020. During the Summer of 2018, Caroline was a design intern at The New York Times in Manhattan where she created a new logo for their digital edition that continues to be published almost daily. She now works full time as a resident graphic designer for The New York Times and resides in Brooklyn’s Park Slope