Faculty Development- January 7th, 2008
"A Conversation with President Lee Todd, Jr."
When: Monday, January 7, 2008
Time: 12:30 p.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Where: The Lexmark Room, 209
Lee T. Todd, Jr. became the 11th president of the University of Kentucky on July 1, 2001, after serving as senior vice president of IBM’s Lotus Development Corp. President Todd is the sixth UK alumnus to hold the presidency.
President Todd has concentrated his efforts and energies on helping his alma mater achieve a greater level of national prominence. He launched the University of Kentucky’s Top 20 Business Plan in December 2005. The plan is a quantitative analysis highlighting what it will take for UK to achieve its state-mandated goal of building a Top 20 public research university. Widely hailed as the first business plan by a public university in the nation, UK’s plan garnered widespread national attention. It has been featured by national media outlets and recognized by peer institutions, as several higher education leaders have visited UK’s campus to learn more about the Business Plan approach. The Top 20 Business Plan also gained support throughout the Commonwealth, as the Kentucky General Assembly fully funded the plan beginning in 2007-08.
President Todd has spearheaded an effort to revitalize health care in Kentucky. In June 2006, UK unveiled the Commonwealth’s Medical Campus of the Future, a multi-phased project aimed at providing Kentuckians with cutting-edge, 21 st century health care. As part of the revamped academic medical campus, UK will construct a new, one million square foot University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital, a new College of Pharmacy, and a new University Health Service (UHS) facility. All three of those projects are in progress.
President Todd is currently a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee for the American Council on Education (ACE) and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC). He also serves on NASULGC’s President’s Council. He serves on the Equitable Resources Board of Directors and is chair of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education’s STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Task Force. He is also a member of the Business Higher Education Forum and the Council on Competitiveness.
He is married to the former Patricia Brantley, a UK graduate who earned her master’s degree from Simmons College in Boston. They have two adult children, UK graduates Troy and Kathryn.