Moving forward with change while respecting and building on the University of Louisville's great history and tradition.

This describes UofL President James R. Ramsey.

As UofL’s 17th president, Ramsey has worked aggressively to move the university closer to its goal of becoming a premier metropolitan research institution, as mandated by Kentucky’s Postsecondary Education Reform Act. Since he became president in 2002, UofL has made great strides in five strategic areas:

• Educational quality
• Extramural research
• Campus diversity
• Community partnerships
• Accountability

The quality of UofL’s freshman class has improved each year, with the average ACT score of incoming freshmen climbing to 24.5 in 2009 from 20.7 in 1995. The university’s graduation rate has soared 60 percent since 2001. 

The University of Louisville’s students are claiming a much larger share of the nation’s most prestigious academic honors.  UofL graduate Monica Marks from tiny Rush, Ky., became the school’s fourth Rhodes Scholar and its first female to win the prestigious award. In 2010, UofL students continued their phenomenal success in securing coveted Fulbright scholarships.  Fourteen UofL students won the scholarships, the most ever by a Kentucky school. Those outstanding students will study overseas and many will return to the state to live and work.

Ramsey also has created a university culture focused on research and innovation that seeks to improve the quality of life for people in Kentucky and beyond. The approach already has led to major milestones in healthcare, business and the environment. Today, UofL’s volume of federal research funding is four times higher than it was seven years ago and the university has become America’s second fastest growing research university in National Institutes of Health funding.

Ramsey also has set the tone for encouraging diversity on campus. UofL has reached or made substantial progress on all eight of its goals set in the Kentucky Plan for Equal Opportunities and the Belknap Campus has changed from a “commuter school” to a residential campus.  One quarter of UofL students live in university or university-affiliated housing compared with 9 percent in 2001.

The university’s ties with its community have never been stronger. Not only has UofL been a major player in the award-winning Partnership for a Green City with Jefferson County Public Schools and Louisville Metro government, it has launched a Signature Partnership Initiative to improve education, health care, social services and economic opportunity in west Louisville.  UofL has earned the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's highest rating in the area of community engagement. UofL is one of only 119 schools nationwide and three schools in Kentucky to earn the designation in two areas, curricular engagement and outreach and partnerships.

Under Ramsey’s direction, UofL is enjoying record-breaking fundraising efforts, collecting more than $100 million per year to help offset a continuing series of state budget cuts. 

A strong commitment to serving the community and state is nothing new for Ramsey. Before assuming UofL’s top post, he served as senior policy adviser and state budget director for Kentucky and senior professor of economics and public policy at UofL.

He also has held other positions in state government, serving as interim commissioner of the Office of the New Economy and special adviser to the chairman of the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.

On the academic side, he has served as vice chancellor for finance and administration at both the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Western Kentucky University. He has been associate dean, assistant dean and director of public administration in the College of Business Administration at Loyola University and research associate for the University of Kentucky’s Center for Public Affairs.

He has taught on the faculties of UNC, WKU, UK, Loyola and Middle Tennessee State University.

A frequent national speaker and writer on economic issues in the public sector, Ramsey received the Louisville Advertising Federation’s Louisvillian of the Year Award in 2010, the Governor’s Association’s Outstanding Public Service Award in 2001 and Kentucky’s Distinguished Economist of the Year in 1999.

A Kentucky native, he holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Western Kentucky University and master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from UK.

Sharing his love for public service is his wife, Jane Ramsey, who is involved in a host of community activities and organizations. She heads an effort to beautify UofL’s Belknap Campus and revitalize its surrounding south Louisville neighborhood.

The Ramseys’ two daughters attended UofL. Jenny, the oldest, holds a nursing degree, while Jacque recently graduated with a degree in marketing.

Resumé (pdf)