As part of a restructuring of Jacksonville University’s top leadership, Dr. Donnie Horner has been named Senior Vice President, University and Academic Affairs / Provost and Acting Chief Academic Officer, University President Tim Cost has announced. “Dr. Horner is an educator of substantial experience and breadth,’’ Cost said. In addition to his full professorship at Jacksonville University teaching masters and doctoral level courses at the Davis College of Business, Dr. Horner has taught at Christopher Newport University, Stanford, West Point, the Naval Academy, the Naval Postgraduate School and the University of Maryland. He also taught at Penn State, where he served as Associate Professor and Director of the Engineering Leadership Development Program.
While at Penn State, Dr. Horner held faculty status in the College of Engineering, the Department of Sociology, the Science, Technology and Society Program and was a faculty affiliate and member of the admissions board at the University’s Schreyer Honors College. Prior to joining JU in 2009, he held the Class of ’61 Endowed Chair and was a Distinguished Professor of Leadership Education in the Department of Leadership, Ethics and Law at the Naval Academy. As an Army officer, Dr. Horner commanded units at the Platoon, Company and Battalion levels and served extensively overseas, including during conflict in Panama and Bosnia. Dr. Horner is widely published, including several articles co-authored while serving as the University’s Chief Athletics Officer. His recent leadership in the Athletics department resulted in a period of unprecedented student-athlete and departmental improvement and did so while teaching four masters and doctoral level courses. “In only two years of service as Chief Athletics Officer, he and his team brought integrity, credibility and excellence to the University,’’ Cost said.