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Elaine H. Hairston, senior consultant, joined Academic Search after eight years of leadership as Chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents.

Dr. Hairston’s search work focuses on public state assisted universities and system leadership. Her searches for president include South Dakota State University, The University of Utah, The University of Toledo, Shawnee State University, Northern State University and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. Her system leadership searches include the South Dakota Board of Regents Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education Executive Director and the Montana Board of Regents for Higher Education Commissioner, as well as a number of others. She has also supported numerous searches for provost and deans.

Dr. Hairston’s over 30 years of system and senior university leadership experience provides broad and deep knowledge of outstanding presidential and system head prospects. She is the former national president of the State Higher Education Executive Officers association, has led Board of Trustees retreats and consulted widely on issues of significant within higher education. Her extensive work in the sensitive areas of changing political and operational environments for campuses brings an added dimension of resource to boards engaged in the sensitive work of presidential and system head searches.

As chancellor of the Ohio Board of Regents, she was responsible for the planning, budgeting, and coordination of Ohio’s 65 public college and university campuses, with a combined enrollment of 400,000 and an annual operating budget in excess of $2 billion.

Prior to her chancellorship, Dr. Hairston was the Ohio Board of Regents vice chancellor for academic affairs and chief architect of its Selective Excellence Program, a $60 million state strategy designed to improve quality on the state’s campuses. In 2000, she was Distinguished Visiting Scholar at The Ohio State University. She has served as a policy consultant to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education and as a consultant to The Pew Charitable Trust.

Dr. Hairston is the former Chair of the Alumni Advisory Council of The Ohio State University former Vice President of The Ohio Historical Society and a former Director of The Huntington National Bank. She is a holder of numerous honorary degrees and earned a baccalaureate degree in English and a master’s and Ph.D. in communication, all from The Ohio State University. Dr. Hairston was honored by The Ohio State University with its Distinguished Service Award in 2004. She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.