Paul LeBlanc

Dr. Paul LeBlanc is President of Southern New Hampshire University (SNHU). Since 2003, under Paul’s leadership, SNHU has grown from 2,800 students to more than 180,000 learners and is the largest nonprofit provider of online higher education in the country. Paul served as Senior Policy Advisor to Undersecretary Ted Mitchell at the US Department of Education, working on competency-based education, new accreditation pathways, and innovation. He served on the National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity (NACIQI) and on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Board on Higher Education and Workforce (and served on its Committee on Quality in Undergraduate Education). He also serves on the American Council on Education Board, various corporate boards, and is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. His book Students First: Equity, Access, and Opportunity in Higher Education won the 2022 Phillip E. Frandson Award.

Paul immigrated to the United States as a child, was the first person in his extended family to attend college, and is a graduate of Framingham State University (BA), Boston College (MA), and the University of Massachusetts (PhD). From 1993 to 1996, he directed a technology start-up for Houghton Mifflin Publishing Company, was President of Marlboro College (VT) from 1996 to 2003, and became President of SNHU in 2003. His wife, Patricia, is an attorney and they have two daughters, Emma and Hannah.