Campus News

Rockford University is pleased to announce the appointment of Raymond J. McNulty, Debra L. Leahy, Ed.D., and Ashwin Puri to its Board of Trustees, bringing three recognized leaders with extensive experience in higher education, educational innovation, international engagement, investment, philanthropy, and community development to the University’s governing board.

The appointments come at an important time for Rockford University and for higher education nationally. Together, McNulty, Leahy, and Puri bring complementary perspectives that will strengthen the Board as the University continues to adapt to a rapidly changing higher education environment while remaining firmly grounded in its mission and its longstanding commitment to the Rockford region.

Rockford University President, Patricia Lynott, Ph.D. said, “These three accomplished leaders understand education, innovation, investment, community, and the changing needs of students and employers. Their addition to our Board strengthens our ability to think boldly about Rockford University’s future while remaining true to the institution we have been for nearly 180 years.”

Raymond J. McNulty has spent more than five decades helping shape the future of education, with leadership experience spanning early childhood, K–12 and higher education, state education policy, philanthropy, technology-enabled learning, and student success. An early national voice on the importance of early-childhood education, McNulty went on to serve as Vermont Commissioner of Education before being selected by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a program director in its education program, where he worked with states and school districts to improve high schools, increase graduation and college-going rates, and create more personalized learning environments.

McNulty later served as Chief Learning Officer for Penn Foster Education and Dean of the School of Education at Southern New Hampshire University, experiences that expanded his work in online and competency-based education, adult learning, and flexible pathways connecting education with employment. As President of the Successful Practices Network and National Dropout Prevention Center, McNulty also helped advance national work addressing student disengagement, resilience, attendance, trauma-skilled schools, and the needs of vulnerable students. He currently serves as Senior Fellow for Thought Leadership at the Successful Practices Network and National Dropout Prevention Center.

McNulty’s latest book, “America’s Next Dream: Preparing Students for a World Where the Old Rules No Longer Apply” explores the critical role of mentorship, exposure to real-world opportunities, resilience, essential workplace skills, and hope in creating equitable pathways to success.

Debra L. Leahy, Ed.D., is a nationally recognized higher education leader with more than three decades of experience in academic leadership, international education, global partnerships, accreditation, enrollment strategy, and workforce-responsive programming. Her leadership experience includes positions at California State University, Fullerton; Southern New Hampshire University; Cambridge College Global; and the New England Institute of Art.

At Southern New Hampshire University, Leahy led more than 70 international partnerships and provided strategic leadership for overseas educational sites in Vietnam and Malaysia. As Provost and Chief Accreditation Officer at Cambridge College Global, she helped grow the institution’s academic portfolio by 75 percent, using workforce and market intelligence to develop programs responsive to emerging employer needs. She is also a frequent presenter at national and international higher education conferences on transnational education, global partnerships, internationalization, and student mobility.

Leahy currently serves as Interim Provost, Vice President for Global Affairs, Dean of the Tangier Campus, and Professor of Global Management at the University of New England, where she provides senior academic leadership while advancing the University’s global strategy and overseeing its campus in Tangier, Morocco.

Ashwin Puri is a Rockford native and investment executive whose appointment represents a convergence of Rockford’s past and its future. The oldest son of the late Sunil Puri, one of the most consequential civic leaders and philanthropists in Rockford’s history, Puri carries forward a family legacy of investment in the community while bringing to the Board a distinctly new generation of experience and perspective.

Puri’s career spans global investing, venture capital, emerging markets, entrepreneurship, and investment governance. His experience includes more than 100 investments across the United States, Africa, Southeast Asia, India, and Latin America, as well as previous leadership roles in venture capital in New York and Michigan. A graduate of Rockford’s Auburn High School and Georgetown University, Puri also gained early public-service experience with the Obama White House and the U.S. Department of State, including at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

Puri currently serves as Chief Investment Officer of First Midwest Group, President of FMG Capital, and President of the Puri Foundation, where he leads investment strategy and capital allocation across a global portfolio and oversees philanthropic grantmaking and partnerships supporting economic mobility, community development, poverty alleviation, and expanded opportunities for women and children.