News & Updates
EDUCATION:
Dr. Burkhardt succeeds Charles G. Lief, JD, Naropa’s seventh president, who has served for 13 years. “Naropa’s mission and approach to education—rooted in contemplative practice and guided by compassion, critical inquiry and courageous engagement—give me so much hope for the future,” said Dr. Burkhardt. “Naropa invites us to engage the world not with fear or cynicism but bravely with presence, purpose and care, and I look forward to leading with and learning from the wonderful faculty, staff, students and alumni of Naropa who are already living the values of mindfulness, radical compassion and creative expression in their classrooms, communities and careers.”
Dr. Burkhardt received his doctoral degree with honors in comparative cultural and literary studies from the University of Arizona. He most recently served as Provost at the University of Olivet in Michigan and, for many years, was the executive vice president and provost at Prescott College in Arizona, an institution that is mission-aligned with Naropa. He’s known for adept handling of student and faculty needs amid periods of rapid enrollment increase and for leading inclusive group processes that reinforce the power of shared governance and effective collaboration among students, staff and faculty. Since 2007, he has worked with the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), the largest regional accreditor, serving as an accreditation team member and team chair, as well as a consultant evaluator in dozens of site visits to universities across 19 states, including Colorado, covered by the HLC.
Dr. Burkhardt enters this new role at a time when the higher education landscape is undergoing constant evolution. With Naropa’s leadership team, he will be charged with building a plan that supports student learning in three modalities—residential, low-residency and fully online—and positioning Naropa as a destination university for students from across the globe. Paul is well-versed in transformational partnerships and has built many reciprocal and lasting relationships with schools, community organizations, unions and businesses. He believes such collaborations nurture abundant opportunities and resources for students, staff and faculty, developing leaders for the future that communities want and the planet needs.
As president, Dr. Burkhardt will focus on several key areas:
- Providing future-focused and student-centered leadership that anticipates trends in higher education
- Creating a vision for the future and leading Naropa through necessary and innovative changes to meet the current and future needs of a global student and faculty body
- Empowering an effective leadership team to achieve administrative, academic, research and service goals
- Working with development staff to build a strategic plan for the next decade of fundraising and development
- Collaborating with faculty to create and support an evolving academic plan for Naropa’s future
