Board of Directors

Senior Advisory Board
Donald R. Lehman
Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and George Gamow Professor of Theoretical Physics
George Washington University

Prior to his appointment as Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs at the George Washington University (GW) in January 2003, Donald R. Lehman served six and one-half years as the University's Vice President for Academic Affairs. In both positions, he has served as the University's Chief Academic Officer with administrative oversight of the schools and other academic divisions. He is responsible for strategic academic planning and educational policy in the areas of admissions, curriculum, research, the libraries, academic computing, distance learning, and faculty personnel administration. In this role, during academic year 2001-02, he led the University's strategic planning effort focused on academic excellence. Lehman also serves as Past-Chair of the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) Board of Trustees, after having served as Chair during 2003-2004, as Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of GW Solutions, as Chair of the Mount Vernon College Board of Trustees, and as a member of the See Forever Foundation Board in conjunction with the Maya Angelou Public Charter School in the District of Columbia.

A noted theoretical nuclear physicist, Lehman chaired the GW Department of Physics from 1987-1993, and served as the founding director of the department's Center for Nuclear Studies from 1990-1993. Prior to his Academic Affairs appointments, he served for three years as Associate Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies (1993-1996).

Lehman initially came to GW in 1965 as a graduate student in Physics, while simultaneously serving in the United States Air Force (USAF) as a program officer for high-energy particle physics at the Air Force of Scientific Research (AFOSR). In the fall of 1968, following his USAF assignment at AFOSR, he returned to civilian status and became a University Teaching Fellow and in January 1969 became a member of the GW faculty as an Instructor in Physics. He earned his B.A. in physics (1962) at Rutgers University and M.S. in space physics (1964) with distinction from the Air Force Institute of Technology. Lehman holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics (1970) from GW, and conducted postdoctoral research as a National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Radiation Theory Section of the National Bureau of Standards from 1970-1972. In September 1972, Lehman returned to GW as an Assistant Professor of Physics and became full Professor in 1982. Lehman was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1988. He received GW's Columbian College Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Scholarship in 1989. In 2002, he was further recognized for his work in theoretical nuclear physics by being named the George Gamow Professor of Theoretical Physics.