Alum Laurie Hall brings vision and leadership to Penn GSE’s executive programs

This summer, Laurie Hall joined Penn GSE as vice dean of executive programs and senior fellow, following a national search. In this role, Hall provides overall leadership, direction, and support for the continued development of the school’s popular executive format programs. Hall’s work is rooted in data-driven decision making, mission alignment, and collaboration.

Penn GSE’s eight executive format programs, which are designed for current practitioners seeking to advance their education without career interruption, comprise about 40% of GSE’s student body. The programs include the Chief Learning Officer Ed.D., Master’s in Education Entrepreneurship, online Master’s in Global Higher Education Management, Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management, Master’s in Medical Education, Mid-Career Doctoral Program in Education Leadership, Master’s in School and Mental Health Counseling, and Master’s in School Leadership. The School’s wide-ranging programs—spanning from the 25-year-strong Mid-Career Program to the Global Higher Education online program now in its third year—have produced alumni that include 30 sitting college presidents and chancellors, graduates from more than 35 countries, 200 health care professionals, and over 125 leaders within the School District of Philadelphia.

Hall comes to the School from Penn’s Division of University Life, where she served as assistant vice provost for strategic planning and operations. At Penn, she has led extensive and effective cross-functional planning and assessment across 15 departments. She previously spent 17 years in progressively senior roles at Princeton University, most recently in the Office of the Executive Vice President, where she led campus-wide planning and resource alignment.

Hall is a proud alum of Penn GSE’s Executive Doctorate in Higher Education Management, where her research focused on institutional decision-making in times of change. Her current research explores the roles of university leadership teams and how institutions respond to societal and political influences.

A collaborative leader, Hall is especially excited to work with the enthusiastic community across the school’s executive-format programs. “Every conversation I have always circles back to how passionate people are about improving educational access,” she shares. “It’s inspiring.”