Dr. Scott Cowen is President Emeritus of Tulane University and Distinguished Presidential Visiting Professor of Leadership and Management at Case Western Reserve University. He served as interim president of Case Western Reserve University from October 2020 until July 2021 and as Tulane’s 14th president from July 1998 through June 2014. Dr. Cowen has been named one of the top college presidents in the nation by TIME Magazine. He is the author, most recently, of Lead and Success: Proven Strategies to Develop and Enhance Leadership Skills for Recent Graduates and Early Career Professionals and Winnebagos on Wednesdays: How Visionary Leadership Can Transform Higher Education.
Dr. Cowen is the recipient of several national awards, including the Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award and the TIAA-CREF Theodore M. Hesburgh Award for Leadership Excellence in Higher Education, as well as honorary degrees from the nation’s top institutions including the University of Notre Dame, Brown University, Yeshiva University, the University of Connecticut, and Case Western Reserve University.
Dr. Cowen led Tulane University through the most trying period of its history when, in August 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans, flooding 70 percent of Tulane’s uptown campus and all the buildings of its downtown health sciences campus. He has been widely praised for bringing Tulane back, integrating public service into the university’s core curriculum, and helping transform New Orleans’ K-12 public school and healthcare systems after the storm. He also served as interim president of Case Western Reserve University during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
He is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was a member of the White House Council for Community Solutions, which advised President Barack Obama on the needs of disconnected youth.
Dr. Cowen received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Connecticut and his master’s and doctorate in business administration from The George Washington University.