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 Edwin H. Welch President University of Charleston Dr. Edwin H. Welch is a native of Maryland and earned degrees from Western Maryland College, Boston University School of Theology, and Boston University Graduate School. He studied International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Higher Education Administration at the Harvard Institute for Educational Management. His Ph.D. is in Social Ethics and he is an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church. Dr. Welch served in the Executive Office of the President at The White House from 1961 until 1971 in the administrations of Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Dr. Welch began his teaching career at West Virginia Wesleyan College where he chaired the Sociology and Anthropology Departments. He was a department chair and Assistant Dean at Lebanon Valley College in Pennsylvania, the Academic Vice President at Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and for eight years Dr. Welch served as the Provost at Wartburg College in Iowa. Dr. Welch has been President of the University of Charleston since 1989. He has led the institution through a period of unprecedented fundraising and expansion of full-time student enrollment, tripling the size of the endowment, clarifying the institution's mission, transforming its academic program, adding a graduate school of pharmacy, and constructing 6 of the 10 buildings on campus. He led the creation of a central administrative computing corporation which serves seven colleges and universities. Dr. Welch serves on many boards, including Chairman of the Quality Committee for the Charleston Area Medical Center Health Systems and Vice Chair for Public Information for the national Council of Independent Colleges. In May 2006, Dr. Welch was given the first-ever Charles L. Foreman Award for Innovation in Private Higher Education by the Foundation for Independent Higher Education. President Welch's wife, Janet, earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Maryland. She is a graduate of West Virginia Wesleyan College, where she was a tenured faculty member in the English Department. She led the way in the development of the Erma Byrd West Virginia Women Artists Gallery at UC, which displays the art of 140 of the state's most outstanding women artists. |
