Robyn E. Hannigan, Ph.D.

Robyn E. Hannigan, Ph.D., is a senior higher education executive, academic strategist, research scientist, and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of leadership experience across institutional types, including small undergraduate-focused colleges, multi-campus research universities, and large public urban research institutions. She has served as President, Provost, and Founding Dean, bringing experience in both undergraduate-only and research-intensive environments.

Dr. Hannigan advises institutions on institutional effectiveness, organizational redesign, academic portfolio management, research growth, faculty affairs, cross-sector partnership development, entrepreneurship, and technology transfer program development. She has led complex institutional change efforts involving academic and student affairs integration, strategic planning, program development, data-informed decision-making, assessment, accreditation readiness, budget alignment, dashboard development, data governance, governance modernization, research infrastructure, innovation ecosystems, and external partnership strategy.

Across her executive roles, Dr. Hannigan has helped institutions translate strategic priorities into operating structures, governance practices, resource models, and accountability systems. Her work includes aligning academic programs with institutional mission and market demand, strengthening faculty and shared governance, building structures for continuous improvement, supporting disciplined approaches to academic planning, advancing research growth, and developing partnerships that connect academic expertise with workforce, industry, civic, and economic-development priorities.

Her experience also includes founding and scaling interdisciplinary academic and research enterprises, expanding research infrastructure, supporting technology translation, and building capacity in entrepreneurship and innovation. As an entrepreneur, she founded and led science-based ventures focused on analytical technologies, intellectual property development, and moving research from academic discovery to applied use.

A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Geological Society of America, Dr. Hannigan has secured or helped lead more than $40 million in external funding and authored more than 100 scholarly publications and technical works. Her earlier service as a Program Officer at the National Science Foundation adds national perspective on research infrastructure, federal funding strategy, and institutional capacity-building. She brings a systems-level view of higher education, with a record of helping institutions connect academic quality, faculty capacity, research strength, operational discipline, and external partnerships to measurable institutional outcomes.