National Labor College Announces Dr. Paula Peinovich as the College’s Interim President

For Immediate Release              
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Contact: Beth Daly
301-943-4002
Beth.daly1@gmail.com

Interim NLC leader brings extensive experience guiding both bricks and mortar colleges as well as managing online university programs.

Silver Spring, MD—The National Labor College (NLC) announced today that Dr. Paula Peinovich has been appointed as the College’s Interim President following the retirement of President William Scheuerman. Peinovich, who holds a Ph.D. in higher education policy from the University of Pennsylvania, has devoted her career to increasing access for underserved learners. The National Labor College, which is the nation’s only fully accredited institution devoted to educating working families and labor activists, recently announced a major initiative to offer a broader curriculum online to millions of union members and their families across the nation.

"Bill Scheuerman did an outstanding job as NLC’s president helping to streamline existing programs and working to develop new initiatives related to online education and green jobs,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka who serves as Chairman of the NLC’s Board of Trustees. “We’re fortunate that we were able to find someone to serve as Interim President with the background that Dr. Peiniovich brings to the table. Her experience will help the college to grow and serve our current students.”

Peinovich held positions as both Provost and President of Walden University, a distance education graduate university from 2002 through 2007. She also spent more than a decade helping to guide Excelsior University, another online institution, as Vice President of Academic Affairs. Prior to her leadership roles in online education, Peinovich served as the Executive Dean of Wayne Community College in Metropolitan Detroit, Michigan.

Early in her career she taught English at Madison Area Technical College where she was a member and local officer of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and served on the local union’s bargaining team. Most recently Peinovich has worked as a consultant advising institutions on issues ranging from accreditation to developing and administering online curriculum.

“The NLC has worked to advance workers both individually and collectively through higher education for more than 40 years,“ said Peinovich. “In a different way, I’ve spent the same period helping to advance working people through higher education. I very much want to help the College to continue in its role as the West Point of the labor movement while developing programs that reach an even wider pool of union members. I am thankful for this opportunity to become part of this unique and important center of learning.”

Peinovich currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation and just completed a term on the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Commission on Women in Higher Education. She previously served on ACE’s Commission on Adult Learning and Educational Credentials. She also serves on the Executive Strategic Council of the IMS Global Learning Consortium, an organization whose mission is to facilitate global quality assurance in online learning. In 2007, she participated on the US Department of Education’s negotiated rulemaking committee on issues surrounding accreditation, and has served on numerous accreditation teams and committees for several of the regional accreditors.

She served on the Board of Directors of the University Continuing Education Association from 2003 to 2005, and is the former president of the Association for Continuing Higher Education. She was selected as a national examiner for the U.S. Department of Commerce's Baldridge National Quality Program in 2003 and again in 2007. She received a Fulbright Fellowship to England where she conducted research on how British universities create access for adult learners.

The NLC’s top leadership post became available after President William Scheuerman announced his retirement last week. A national search will be conducted later this year for a permanent replacement.

About the National Labor College

Established as a training center by AFL-CIO in 1969 to strengthen union member education and organizing skills, the NLC is the nation's only accredited higher education institution devoted exclusively to educating union leaders, members and activists. The NLC became a degree granting college in 1997 and earned accreditation in 2004. The college is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, an independent, regional accrediting body recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.

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