Molly Corbett Broad, former president of the University of North Carolina, has been named president of the American Council on Education, the higher education association announced Tuesday.

Broad, currently a professor in the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will become the first woman to lead ACE since its founding in 1918. Succeeding David Ward as president, Broad becomes the 12th ACE president effective May 1. She is charged with building relations between the higher education community and a new administration next January and confronting growing pressure from Congress for colleges to act to keep tuitions affordable.

“I am delighted to announce the selection of Molly Broad as the new president of ACE,” said Board Chair Ricardo R. Fernández, president of Lehman College, The City University of New York. “She clearly has the passion, intellectual strength, and diverse experience to articulate a policy agenda for all of higher education, from community colleges to research universities.”

Broad was president of the 16-campus University of North Carolina from 1997 to 2006. Under Broad’s leadership, UNC experienced unprecedented enrollment growth – minority enrollment grew at more than double the rate of the overall student body – and the system’s historically minority campuses received special state funding that allowed for significant academic and operating improvements. 

She formerly served as senior vice chancellor for administration and finance at the California State University system from 1992 to 1993 and as executive vice chancellor and chief operating officer from 1993 until her election as UNC’s president. Prior to her tenure at CSU, Broad was the chief executive officer for Arizona's three-campus university system and has served as the State Higher Education Executive Officer (SHEEO) in two states: Arizona and North Carolina.

The Pennsylvania native graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a baccalaureate degree in economics from Syracuse University. She holds a master's degree in the field from The Ohio State University.