Dr. Dennis Anderson, Ph.D.

Global Higher Education Leader | Digital Transformation & AI Strategist | International Development Advisor

* * *

SUMMARY

Dr. Dennis Anderson, Ph.D., is a strategic academic leader and technologist with over 25 years of experience shaping STEM-focused higher education, global engagement, and institutional transformation. He has served as professor, department chair, associate dean, and provost, as well as a de facto chief academic/operating officer, overseeing academic portfolios, multi‑unit student-success ecosystems, finance, operations, and IT within complex, multi-campus universities. As founding director of a Center for Advanced Media and an undergraduate research lab at Pace University, he has launched interdisciplinary initiatives that connect emerging technologies, experiential learning, and applied research. Globally, Anderson’s thought leadership is grounded in high-level UN and international engagements and on-the-ground experience in Dubai, Colombia, Croatia, Montenegro, and more than 40 countries. He works at the intersection of geopolitics and international education, designing partnerships that advance student mobility, cross-border collaboration, and institutions’ roles within global policy and innovation ecosystems. At the nexus of higher education and technology, Anderson has long served as a bridge between universities and CIO communities. He is a strategic advisor to CIO-focused media platforms, a judge for CIO100 and CSO50, and a senior advisor to Microsoft’s Imagine Cup and related initiatives, bringing a higher-education and policy lens to Fortune 500 and international technology leaders. Across these roles, he focuses on how AI, cloud, and digital ecosystems can be harnessed to redesign talent pipelines, reimagine student-success infrastructures, and build mission-aligned partnerships between universities, industry, and global institutions.

MORE…

Dr. Dennis Anderson is a seasoned academic and global strategist with decades of distinguished leadership in various sectors, particularly in higher education, civil society, nonprofits, and international organizations as a board member and executive. He is also a highly respected adviser, speaker, and consultant for international organizations, past engagements including Microsoft, IDG, the World Bank and the United Nations. He delivered keynotes in numerous countries including Belgium, Turkey, Oman, and Montenegro. He has participated and/or moderated ministerial roundtables and forums related to public administration and ICT in China, Korea, Colombia, Montenegro, and France and has also presented to groups of leaders from Russia, Belgium and the Balkan countries. He has served as an expert consultant to the United Nations on various projects. With his deep knowledge and broad experience in e-government, ICT, future workforce, AI, sustainable development, leadership, and education, he is widely recognized as an eminent expert in the international community.

Professor Anderson recently held the position of Provost and Senior Vice President at St. Francis College. His extensive tenure includes roles as Chair and Professor of Management and IT at the College. He also served as the Founding Executive Chair of the Center for Entrepreneurship and the Institute for E-government and Global Sustainability. Prior to this, Anderson contributed significantly to Pace University, where he served as an Associate Dean, Professor of Information Systems, and Founding Director of the University’s Center for Advanced Media and the Lab for Undergraduate Research for Collaborative Computing. As an applied computer scientist, he has taught business, information systems, and computer science courses at various institutions including NYU Courant Institute, City University of New York, and Pace University. Additionally, he is the Chair of NABU – Knowledge Transfer Beyond Boundaries, which has served as a Special Consultative NGO to the United Nations since 2015.

Anderson holds a Ph.D. and M.Phil. from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, an Ed.M. from Teachers College, an M.S. from New York University’s Courant Institute, and a B.A. from Fordham University. He has completed an executive education program in E-Commerce at Columbia University’s School of Business and a professional program in multimedia at the MIT. He is also an alumnus of Harvard University’s Institute for Management and Leadership in Education Program and Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Program in Crisis Leadership.

He has presented at international organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank, and at numerous international conferences on topics such as e-government, ICT, future workforce, AI, sustainability, leadership, and education. His research interests include ICT, sustainable development, information policy, human-computer interaction, AI, computer science, mathematics, and e-commerce. As a distinguished researcher, he has received numerous grants, including those from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, and has served as a reviewer/referee for grants, fellowships, and publications. He has been named to the roster of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board’s Fulbright Senior Specialist program as an expert in IT, and has served as an advisor to various advisory boards, NGOs, startups, and conference boards including the following: United Nations Advisory Group for the UN E-government Survey, CIO Executive Forum in Support of the UN Forum in Shanghai, Fulbright Academy of Science and Technology, Microsoft Faculty Advisory Board, Microsoft Global Education Leaders Forum, CIO Executive Programs, CXO Media, New York City Department of Education, Council for Career and Technical Education, and Computerworld Strategic Programs.

He has served as a judge for several national and international awards and competitions, including the New York City Science and Engineering Fair, Microsoft Imagine Cup, Computerworld Honors, CIO100, CSO50, and the Advanced Technology Emmy Awards, and as a reviewer for the New York State Education Department’s Institutional Accreditation. He has presented to companies such as Microsoft and IBM, and is a member of professional organizations including the Association for Computing Machinery, the IEEE-Computer Society, and the Association for Information Systems. He was also a Senior Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor at the Université de Mons-Hainaut Waroque Business School in Belgium, where he gave lectures on e-commerce and emerging technologies. He has also served as a high-level advisor to the United Nations Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development.

Anderson has been a Fellow or Visiting Scholar at distinguished organizations including the Faruk Eczacibasi Fellow in Residence, the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society in Graz, the UBS Wolfsberg Think Tank in Switzerland, Microsoft Research India in Bangalore, and Bogazici University in Istanbul. His achievements have led to inductions into honor societies such as Sigma Xi, Kappa Delta Pi, Alpha Kappa Psi, Upsilon Pi Epsilon, and Sigma Beta Delta.

Sustainability  – “a continuing process of refining and extending the life cycle of products, services, or environment to stimulate social and economic growth without depleting resources.” (Dennis Anderson, March 29, 2010)

Contact: dennis.danderson@gmail.com