Dr. Mary A. Papazian advises presidents, senior leaders, and institutions facing change. She has served as president of two public universities — San José State University and Southern Connecticut State University — and as provost at Lehman College, CUNY, across nearly four decades in higher education. She is Senior Fellow and Senior Consultant at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges, Vice Chair of the Board of the American Public University System, a 109,000-student institution that unified four academic units under a single accreditation in 2026, Global Fellow at Arizona State University’s University Design Institute, and Senior Education Advisor at CodeSignal. She holds a Ph.D. in English literature from UCLA and writes The Human Element, a monthly examination of what humanistic education makes possible in an age of artificial intelligence.

 

Through Arshag Consulting, she partners with colleges and universities, corporations, foundations, and nonprofits to navigate complex challenges in leadership, governance, institutional transformation, and the future of work and learning.