Ken Iwama

Phone:

812-855-3771

Email:

kiwama@iu.edu

Department:

Office of the Vice President for Regional Campuses and Online Education

Campus:

IU

Ken Iwama was appointed Vice President for Regional Campuses and Online Education on July 1, 2024. Prior to this appointment, Ken served as the Chancellor of Indiana University Northwest from 2020-2024. During his tenure at IU Northwest, Ken helped the campus navigate the unprecedented impacts of the worldwide pandemic, leading the university into a new community-engaged era. He cultivated an environment supporting academic and programmatic funding, resulting in a surge in regional campus grant activity and awards. He has worked with his team to collaborate on data-based strategies and empowered the campus efforts to gradually stabilize post-pandemic enrollment declines; for fall 2023, the campus achieved an increase in first-year undergraduate students and the highest number of new applications and admitted students in over a decade.

Ken facilitated IU Northwest to become the first campus after IU Bloomington to implement the signature student-success Groups Scholars Program supporting first-generation students and students of color. IU Northwest is also the first comprehensive public institution in the state to receive designation as a Hispanic- and Minority-Serving Institution, recently achieving the campus’s all-time-high percentages of Hispanic students, 29.1%, and all students of color, 53.9%.

Before coming to IU, Ken served as founding Vice President for the Division of Economic Development, Continuing Studies, and Government Relations for the College of Staten Island of the City University of New York. In addition to providing diverse educational programming for degree-seeking, professional certificate, and pre-college students, his division supported faculty research and innovation, government relations, corporate and foundation engagement, specialized student career services, student residential life, workforce development, auxiliary services, and community-based centers and programming. Ken’s division led the college’s strategic priority in re-engaging with the community of Staten Island, one of the five great boroughs of New York City, which resulted in unprecedented resources flowing to the college to grow the educational and research environments needed to support and enhance academic excellence. Of particular note, Ken helped secure over $22 million for major facilities and infrastructure projects as well as academic initiatives supporting the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, Division of Science and Technology, School of Health Sciences, and the School of Business. Ken also led the creation of CSI Tech Incubator, the first technology incubator on Staten Island, helping to spark innovation-fueled economic development in the borough.

Ken also served as Chief of Staff and Deputy for two College of Staten Island presidents and as the college’s Director of Diversity and Compliance. With an extensive background in education law and labor law, prior to working at the college, Ken was General Counsel for the State-Operated School District of Jersey City. As the first school district in the nation subject to takeover by a state due to its struggles in meeting state constitutional education standards, Ken was a senior member of the state-appointed intervention team, which ultimately was successful in raising performance indicators and commencing the district’s return to local city control.

Ken has presented on higher education issues at national conferences and seminars and has served with numerous higher education/legal organizations, including as a member of the AASCU Millenium Leadership Institute steering committee, on the Board of the Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities, the Advisory Committee for the Journal of College and University Law and the Committee on Legal Education for the National Association of College and University Attorneys, the New York City Tech Talent Pipeline Academic Council, and as chair of the Administrative Law Section of the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Ken has also served with local and regional organizations, including the Boards of the Urban League of Northwest Indiana and the Northwest Indiana Forum and One Region economic development organizations, and as co-chair of the Freshkills Park Alliance in New York City. Ken was also appointed by the governor of New York to serve on the Blue-Ribbon Panel to study the integration of the Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities with the College of Staten Island.

Ken holds a BA in English from the University of New Hampshire, an MA in Labor and Employment Relations from the Rutgers University School of Management and Labor Relations, and a JD from Seton Hall Law School.