Harry L. Peterson retired as
president of Western State College of Colorado in 2002. His administrative
career focused on organizational change and external relations.
Earlier in his career he served as an
administrator at UW–Green Bay when it opened in 1969 and became a four year
university; he reported to three Chancellors at the University of
Wisconsin–Madison, including serving as Chief of Staff to Donna Shalala
while she was Chancellor at that university. Peterson was Deputy Chancellor
of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities in the mid-1990s, when that
system of higher education was created, and Vice President for University
Relations and Development at the University of Idaho. He also served in the
administrations of two Wisconsin governors.
Peterson received a bachelor’s degree from San
Diego State University, a master’s degree from University of
California–Berkeley, postgraduate training at Harvard Medical School and
Massachusetts General Hospital, and a Ph.D. from UW–Madison in Education
Policy Studies, with an emphasis on organization change. His dissertation
was a study of the leadership of Robert Birnbaum at the University of
Wisconsin–Oshkosh.
Peterson now consults with college, university,
and system presidents, and has conducted presidential evaluations. His
clients have included the SUNY– System Administration, SUNY–Fredonia,
Holyoke Community College, the University of Wisconsin System
Administration, the University of Wisconsin Colleges, the University of
Wisconsin–Madison, and Cedar Crest College. He has served on the Board of
Visitors of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison,
and is a 2004 recipient of the Alumni Achievement Award from that school.
Harry’s hobbies include book-collecting and
reading—especially biographies, nature studies, and American history. He is
an active fly fisher, fly tier, and writer, and has published articles about
conservationist Aldo Leopold and fly fishing. He and his wife Sylvia live in
Middleton, Wisconsin.
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