Richard Richardson

Richard C. Richardson Jr. retired in 2011 from a 12-year post-retirement career as Professor Emeritus of Higher Education at New York University. He is also Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Arizona State University where he retired in 1999.

Among his career highlights are: 

• Active duty, Captain in the U.S. Marine Corp Reserve
• Teacher and a counselor in a two-year college in Vermont
• Dean of student services and later as a dean of instruction in the founding years of the Junior College District of St Louis, St Louis County, Missouri
• Founding President of Northampton County Area Community College in Bethlehem, PA           

Professor Richardson is senior author or coauthor of eight books, which focus on community colleges, literacy, transfer between two- and four-year colleges and universities, achieving quality and diversity in postsecondary education, state systems of higher education, and policy and performance in higher education. He has also authored more than 30 chapters in books and 70 journal articles. Between 1999 and 2007, he directed a Ford Foundation-funded project that examined the linkages between federal and state policies and changes in college and university outcomes and behaviors in the US, Mexico and Canada. The project also served as a vehicle for training a small cadre of younger policy scholars in all three nations.

In 1983, Professor Richardson was named a Distinguished Graduate of the College of Education at UT. He also holds an honorary doctor of letters degree from Lafayette College in Easton, PA.

Dick and his wife, Pat, live in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. They also maintain a residence in Scottsdale, which allows them to reconnect with Arizona State University friends and activities as well as family in the Phoenix area.