CCNY President Vince Boudreau wins CASE CEO Leadership Award

The City College of New York President Vincent G. Boudreau has been honored with the Chief Executive Leadership Award from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE)’s District II, which encompasses the mid-Atlantic region and is the Council’s largest division.

The Chief Executive Leadership Award celebrates CASE member institutional chief executive officers, college and university system heads, and trustees for outstanding efforts in promoting the value of education and supporting advancement at their campuses. Recipients, through their ability to create a vision and inspire others, have established a positive image for their institution while leading it to even higher levels of success.  

Boudreau has spent his entire academic career at CCNY. He joined the faculty in 1991 after earning his Ph.D. in political science from Cornell University. Within six months, Assistant Professor Boudreau was tapped to lead the master's degree program. Over the next decade, he held every position from faculty member and department chair to deputy dean of the Division of Social Sciences. He had also served as first director of the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies. In 2013, the Center’s activities were consolidated into the new Colin Powell School for Civic and Global Leadership, with Boudreau as its founding dean. In 2017, he was appointed president of the College.

Boudreau has achieved a number of firsts since assuming the helm. The College’s enrollment set a record in the fall of 2025. Improvements in enrollment over the past few years have put the College on a much-improved financial footing, helping to close the budget deficit for the first time in 10 years and allowing it to begin to rebuild full-time faculty numbers, which have decreased over the years.

Boudreau has also energized the alumni and donor base. The College’s 10-year “Doing Remarkable Things Together Again” campaign, launched in May 2022 to celebrate the College’s 175th anniversary, is already halfway toward reaching its $1 billion goal. In 2023, he established the “City In City” initiative, visiting hundreds of alumni and donors around the country to reimagine relationships with them in regions in which the College lacks a year-round presence.

“Dr. Boudreau exemplifies what CASE sees as one of the most important roles of a chief executive: to advocate for, and inspire support in, service in the advancement of higher education,” said Senior Vice President of the Office of Institutional Advancement, Communications and External Relations Dee Dee Mozeleski, who is also the executive director of the Foundation for City College, senior advisor to the president, and a 2021 CASE District II Professional of the Year. “Having worked together for more than a decade, I know first-hand how Dr. Boudreau sees our campus and there is never a doubt that his first thought each morning – and his last thought each night - is how to further advocate for the original ‘experiment’ that is now a reality for thousands of students each year.” 

“I have been actively involved with CCNY for five decades since I graduated in 1974, as a board member of the Alumni Association of the City College of New York, and as a member of The Foundation for City College’s advisory board, its development committee and, since 2024, as its chair,” said Frank Sciame, CEO of Sciame Construction. “In these roles, I have had a front row seat to observe President Boudreau’s leadership over the past years. From this unique vantage point, I have had the privilege of witnessing how he has been the driving force behind the institution’s current direction, embodying the true spirit of chief executive leadership this award aims to acknowledge. His efforts have not only highlighted the importance of education, but have also fundamentally transformed The City College of New York’s advancement culture and achievement with unmatched ability to develop and implement a visionary strategy.”

Boudreau said that he was deeply honored by the recognition from CASE and hailed the support he’s received as CCNY President by “a hugely talented team” led by Mozeleski.

“Together, we’ve developed an approach that feels right to me,” he said. “We don’t have pyramid charts or thermometers in our offices, although we are in the midst of our campaign.  We tell stories of our work, collect data and share information, elaborate a vision for our future, and invite our friends to join with us.”