Eric Braun, who served as Shawnee States University’s Vice President for Advancement and Enrollment Management has been appointed as interim president effective July 1. 2023. Braun joined Shawnee State University in 2009, serving as Executive Director of Development and then later as Secretary to the Board of Trustees prior to his appointment as VP for Advancement and Enrollment Management in 2016.
Braun, who earned his JD at Wake Forest University, and an Ed.D at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College, was appointed by Governor Kasich to the Ohio Trust Authority, the board that provides oversight for Ohio’s 529 college savings program. He was elected executive chairman of the board from 2015-2018. Prior to joining Shawnee State University, Braun was the managing partner of a statewide North Carolina law firm, Bunch and Braun, PLLC.
Braun joins a growing number of lawyer presidents with prior fundraising experience. As discussed in more detail in May it Please the Campus: Lawyers Leading Higher Education, over the last three decades, the number of lawyer presidents with professional campus-based fundraising experience has increased from three in the 1990s to twelve in the 2000s and to twenty-six in the 2010s. This is not surprising given the pressure on presidents to generate external resources to support the needs and growth of the campus.