Office of the President

Antoine M. Garibaldi, Ph.D.
President, University of Detroit Mercy

Antoine M. Garibaldi, Ph.D.

Antoine M. Garibaldi is President of University of Detroit Mercy, a Catholic, Master’s Comprehensive University sponsored by the Religious Sisters of Mercy and the Society of Jesus. University of Detroit Mercy has more than 5,200 students in 116 undergraduate and graduate academic programs, including professional programs in Architecture, Dentistry and Law. The University is ranked 20 among Midwest Best Regional Universities in U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges 2013” edition. Dr. Garibaldi is the first lay president of the University and a tenured Professor of Education.

Prior to joining University of Detroit Mercy in June 2011, he was President of Gannon University for nine and a half years. During his tenure, enrollment increased by 24 percent -- more than 830 students -- to 4,238 students; the endowment more than doubled; he led the largest comprehensive campaign and raised nearly $40 million, including more than $31.5 million in private gifts, two first-ever multi-million dollar federal grants (Title III and Student Support Services) from the U.S. Department of Education, major grants from the National Science Foundation and other foundations, and more than $5 million of federal and state grants to establish the Erie Technology Incubator; more than thirty buildings were constructed, acquired and renovated; and Gannon was ranked for seven consecutive years in the top tier of Northern Best Regional Universities by U.S. News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” in its 2005-2011 editions. Gannon was also ranked in the Great Schools, Great Prices category for five years and as a Top Up-and-Coming School in 2009.

Nationally recognized for his more than three decades of teaching, scholarly work and administrative experience in education and the federal government, Dr. Garibaldi is a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Educational Research Association and the author of eleven books and more than 85 research articles and chapters.

He serves on the boards of several local and national organizations and universities. Locally, he is on the Boards of Directors of the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) and New Detroit; and he is a member of Brother Rice High School’s Human Resources Committee. Nationally he serves on the boards of: the Association of Governing Boards’ (AGB) Council of Presidents; Horizon League Board of Directors Executive Committee; the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU); the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ National Review Board; University of Saint Thomas (MN); QEM Math, Science, Engineering (MSE) Network; and the Sister Thea Bowman Catholic Educational Foundation. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. and Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, where he currently serves on the Young Black Male Subcommittee of the Grand Social Action Committee.

He has previously served on the boards of: American Council on Education, where he was Secretary of the Board; National Association of College and University Business Officers; Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Pennsylvania; Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), where he served a two-year term as Chair of the Board of Directors (2006-08); NCAA Division II Presidents Council (2005-09) and Chair of the NCAA’s Executive Committee Subcommittee on Gender and Diversity. Dr. Garibaldi was Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Association for Higher Education in 2001-02, and he served two four-year terms on the AAHE Board from 1995-2003. Additionally, he is a former member of the American Council on Education’s Commission on Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness, Wheeling Jesuit University’s (WV) Board of Directors, and Seton Hall (N.J.) University’s Board of Directors and Board of Regents. He served as Chairman of the Social Action Committee of Sigma Pi Phi in 2006-08, Vice Chairman in 2008-10, and he was a member of the fraternity’s Education Commission in 2010-12.

He has received numerous honors, including the “Person of the Year Award” from the University of Notre Dame Club of Erie; four honorary doctorates from Our Lady of Holy Cross College, Seton Hall University, Gannon University, and University of Saint Thomas (MN); the Papal honor of Knight of St. Gregory the Great (2006); the Outstanding Achievement Award from the University of Minnesota (2006); the Howard University Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement in the field of education (2004); and the National Service Award from the International Salute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, DC (2001).

Some of his previous professional positions include: Senior Fellow in the Office of the Vice President for Collaborations and Corporate Secretary at the Educational Testing Service in 2000-01; Howard University’s first Provost and Chief Academic Officer and tenured Professor in the School of Education between 1996 and 2000; and at Xavier University of Louisiana, between 1982 and 1996, he served successively as Chairman of the Education Department, Dean of Arts and Sciences, and Vice President for Academic Affairs. Between 1977 and 1982, he was a federal government administrator and researcher at the U.S. Department of Education’s National Institute of Education, where he was also a staff member of the National Commission on Excellence in Education, which produced the landmark report, A Nation at Risk.

A native of New Orleans, he received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Howard University in 1973 and his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1976.