Office of the President

Meet the President 

Kenneth Elmore, J.D. is the 14th president of Dean College. 

As president, Kenneth reports to the Board of Trustees. President Elmore leads Dean College in successfully implementing its mission and support Dean’s national recognition for The Dean Difference – the College’s distinct model for student success.

Kenneth has more than three decades of higher education experience as an accomplished leader, connector, and community builder. Throughout his career Kenneth has been an institutional catalyst dedicated to making and keeping the common ground compelling. Kenneth’s signature is his commitment to public engagement and the pluralistic ideal. His “work” is to break barriers of divisiveness by pushing communities to discover their shared humanity and to foster meaningful, authentic friendships. Kenneth has worked with students to expand their intellectual, social, and spiritual growth.

Kenneth has co-led efforts to facilitate climates for free speech and expression – to expose, debate, and wrestle with ideas, understand our bias, and encourage critical engagement. Early in his career as a dean of students, Kenneth pioneered a long-standing weekly discussion series – Coffee and Conversation – to foster an inclusive atmosphere through listening and idea exchange.

Kenneth led a university-wide initiative to refresh the pluralistic ideal by expanding the Howard Thurman Center for Common Ground. As a thought-leader and roll-up-the-sleeves creator, Kenneth created a 19,000-square-foot physical forum for challenging presumptions, questioning easy and comfortable answers, and fostering dialogue amongst people, even when they differ. Cultural interchange, visible interaction, listening, inclusive atmosphere, hospitality, generosity, heart, and soul are the tenets of the Howard Thurman Center.

Kenneth has cultivated an institutional mindset that ensures that traditional non-academic departments understand that the student experience is multi-dimensional and not solely about social integration and skill-based experiences “outside the classroom” to achieve greater outcomes for students. He has written on and shaped co-curricular experiences within a large university’s general education requirements.

Colleagues recognize President Elmore as a visionary who has driven improvements and change while bringing people together. Kenneth has received several honors and professional distinctions, including being named a Pillar of the Profession by the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) and a Diamond Honoree by the American College Personnel Association – College Student Educators International (ACPA,) for outstanding work in student affairs and services, and in higher education. In 2019, Kenneth was selected by the Mayor of Boston to deliver the annual, historic Fourth of July Oration at Faneuil Hall.

President Elmore is a lifelong advocate, teacher and learner who believes in the potential of students and the value of education to change lives. He is a graduate of Brown University, Boston University, and New England Law.