Jeremy L. Moreland
President
A dynamic academic leader in professions-based, student-centered higher education, Dr. Jeremy L. Moreland was officially appointed as the 13th president in William Woods University (WWU) history on September 21, 2021. Stepping into the top leadership role at WWU in its 151th year of operation, Dr. Moreland's mandate for leading William Woods into the future has included a commitment to academic opportunity, enrollment growth, the total student experience and the long-term fiscal health of the University.
Since assuming leadership of The Woods, Dr. Moreland's impact on the institution has been profound. Under his watch, the University enjoyed the biggest two-year growth in new student enrollment in William Woods history in 2022 and 2023, including the largest incoming class of new students ever when 456 new students enrolled at The Woods at the beginning of the for 2023-24 academic year. The impressive growth of the institution has occurred while the University has substantially increased opportunities for students both inside and outside the classroom.
During Dr. Moreland's tenure as president, William Woods has added its first-ever Ph.D. degree program, first-ever STEM-related graduate degree program, and seven new additional academic degree programs. The University has also significantly expanded its offerings of online programs that target working professionals since Dr. Moreland became president, with the establishment of William Woods Global. His commitment to the student experience outside the classroom has been marked by the addition of seven new intercollegiate sports programs at WWU, highlighted by the historic introduction of tackle and women's flag football for the first time ever at William Woods.
Having served in a variety of roles in his nearly quarter-century higher education career including provost/chief academic officer, dean, faculty member and research associate, Dr. Moreland joined WWU after serving in the top academic leadership role at St. Thomas University, a private, regionally-accredited student-focused university in Miami, Florida.
Serving as Provost and Chief Academic Officer for St. Thomas University, Dr. Moreland led the university's academic affairs division during two and a half years of tremendous academic and enrollment growth. Responsible for oversight of academic programs, instruction, classroom and online delivery, curriculum, assessment and quality assurance among other areas, St. Thomas enjoyed remarkable enrollment growth during his tenure, including consecutive record-breaking incoming traditional age freshman classes in 2019, 2020, and 2021. He was also instrumental in helping achieve operating surpluses in the university's budget after years of deficits, innovative new academic programs and the implementation of a multi-point, hybrid advising model. He also led successful responses to fully resolve existing accreditor concerns regarding earlier years' matters, thus ending his tenure at St. Thomas with zero accreditor concerns for the institution.
Prior to joining STU, Dr. Moreland served as Provost and Chief Academic Officer at the University of the Rockies, a private, Higher Learning Commission-accredited university serving masters and doctoral students nationally from Denver, Colorado. While overseeing all academic programs, instruction, online and classroom delivery, curriculum and assessment, he was instrumental in helping achieve year-over-year improvements in areas such as student retention, student satisfaction, increased class size and improved availability, and employee engagement and satisfaction.
From 2004-2016, Dr. Moreland held a variety of increasingly responsible academic positions at the University of Phoenix (Arizona), including Academic Dean and Executive Director, Associate Dean and Research Faculty member of the School of Advanced Studies. In these posts, Dr. Moreland served as the Founding Editor and Editor in Chief of the Journal of Leadership Studies.
Additional past experience includes serving as Director of Institutional Assessment and Planning for the Office of the President at Phoenix (Arizona) College; Education Research Associate and Accountability Data Administrator with the Arizona Department of Education, and research positions with Collin County Community College (Plano, Texas) and Texas Christian University (TCU). During his career, Dr. Moreland has also held numerous faculty appointments in a variety of subjects, including professor at St. Thomas University and the University of the Rockies; administrative faculty member at the University of Phoenix; graduate student instructor at TCU and adjunct faculty member at Glendale (Ariz.) Community College, Phoenix College, Embry Riddle Aeronautical University and Arizona State University.
Dr. Moreland earned both his Doctor of Philosophy (1998) and Masters of Science (1996) in General Experimental Psychology from TCU, with a research focus on applied cognition and innovative learning media. He is also a 1993 graduate of Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he received a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology with a minor in Hearing Impaired Studies/Sign Language. He is a member of the International Leadership Association, American Educational Research Association, and the Association of Psychological Science.
A native of Oklahoma who spent most of his youth in Texas, Dr. Moreland is married to Diane Moreland, who serves as Research Analyst with the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center, which is part of the School of Social Work at Arizona State University. Dr. and Mrs. Moreland have two daughters, Maddy (a student at William Woods) and Olivia.