Leadership

Joseph E. Aoun, a well-known higher education thought leader and renowned scholar in linguistics, is the seventh President of Northeastern University. 

An internationally respected voice on the value of global and experiential education, President Aoun has led the expansion of experiential learning—centered on Northeastern’s signature co-op program—to offer opportunities for work, research, service, and global study in 136 countries. 

He has strategically aligned the university’s use-inspired research enterprise with three global imperatives—health, security, and sustainability—a focus supported by seven new interdisciplinary research institutes. 

Northeastern has also established a network of fourteen campuses in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom, as part of the president’s vision for a global university system that will expand opportunities for lifelong learning and collaborative research. 

As a result of these and other initiatives created during the president’s tenure, Northeastern has attracted record numbers of high-talent students, while external awards for research have more than tripled. 

President Aoun is the author of numerous articles and books, including Robot-Proof: Higher Education in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (MIT Press, 2017). In it, he confronts the need for colleges and universities to reimagine education in the face of increasingly smart machines. 

Among his awards and honors, President Aoun was recently appointed as Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the President of the French Republic. He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a past chair of the American Council on Education. 

He came to Northeastern from the University of Southern California’s College of Letters, Arts & Sciences, where he was the inaugural holder of the Anna H. Bing Dean’s Chair. He received his PhD in linguistics and philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and advanced degrees from the University of Paris VIII and Saint Joseph University in Beirut, Lebanon. 

Diane Nishigaya MacGillivray is Senior Vice President for University Advancement at Northeastern University, where she steers a University Advancement team that works closely with university leadership to execute fundraising strategies that fuel the university’s momentum. MacGillivray oversaw the successful completion of the university’s largest ever campaign in 2017, which raised $1.4 billion, setting a new university record. Under her leadership, annual fundraising has increased from an average of $20 million to an average of $110 million, including securing a gift for the first named college at the university and a $50 million donation for a second named college. Most recently, MacGillivray was instrumental in attaining four $100 million gifts to launch an advanced technology campus in Portland, Maine.

After coming to Northeastern, MacGillivray implemented a strategic restructuring of the fundraising operation from a centralized model to a more effective hybrid structure and oversaw the creation of new initiatives, such as the family philanthropy program and innovative alumni engagement programs. She also created and leads the university-wide Women Who Empower initiative, which is grounded in the belief that diverse and inclusive communities empower a better world and advances this mission through its entrepreneurship initiative, scholarships, mentorship, events, and more.

Prior to joining Northeastern in 2007, MacGillivray was senior associate dean for Advancement in the College of Letters, Arts and Sciences at the University of Southern California (USC). MacGillivray holds a bachelor’s degree from Boston University and a master’s in 19th century British history from USC.