Chris Ruhl, interim CEO of Purdue Global and chief financial officer of Purdue University, announced today (November 13) that Jon Harbor will serve as interim chancellor of Purdue Global beginning January 1, assuming the role of Frank Dooley, who announced on November 6 that he will step down at the end of 2024.

Harbor served as Purdue Global Provost from August 2020 to January 2024 and has since been a senior advisor to Purdue Provost Patrick Wolfe.

Harbor came to Purdue’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences in 1994 and has served the university as professor of environmental geosciences, department head, founding co-director of the Discovery Learning Research Center, associate vice president for research, dean interim of the College of Science and in several other leadership roles. His research and education initiatives have resulted in more than 150 peer-reviewed journal publications and three books, and have been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, and international research foundations. As executive director of digital education and associate vice provost for teaching and learning from 2015-2018, Harbor oversaw the significant expansion of degrees, certificates and online educational development support at Purdue.

From 2018 to 2020, Harbor served as executive vice president and provost at the University of Montana.

Harbor is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association of American Geographers and the Royal Geographical Society. He worked as a senior Fulbright Scholar (New Zealand) and as a Marie Curie Scholar of the European Union (Sweden). Harbor’s leadership training included a one-year fellowship with the American Council on Education.