George J. Hagerty is the President of Beacon College in Leesburg, Florida. His appointment to the Beacon post in March of 2013 has returned him to the arena of special education, the focus of his early career with the U.S. Department of Education.
Dr. Hagerty is the President-emeritus of Franklin Pierce University, where he served from 1995 to 2009, a period of significant transformation and growth. A champion of promoting the U.S. higher education model to an international audience, Hagerty immediately followed his presidency by serving as the Provost and University Professor at the newly founded Hellenic American University in Athens, Greece. Before assuming the Beacon presidency, he served as the President of University Advisors International, Inc. (UAI), a U.S.-based international investment and consulting company that provided counsel to institutions of higher education, non-profit organizations, and corporations on four continents.
As an academic, Hagerty served in faculty and administrative roles at his alma maters — Stonehill College and Harvard University. His teaching, research, and writing are focused on government, special education policy and finance, educational innovation, and non-profit management. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, and policy papers in these arenas.
After completing a post-doctoral fellowship at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, Dr. Hagerty was appointed to a series of posts in the newly created U.S. Department of Education, culminating in his appointment as the Chief of Compliance and Enforcement in the Office of Special Education Programs. Since leaving Federal service, Hagerty has been counsel to both Democratic and Republican Administrations on issues related to education, State-Federal relations, and public finance.
Prominent among Dr. Hagerty’s governing board appointments are his service as Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU), as well as Chair of the Presidents Council of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA-Division II). He also served on the Board of the American Council on Education (ACE) and was appointed to the Council’s Commission on Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness.
