University of the Ozarks President Richard L. Dunsworth, J.D., has been named the recipient of the 12th annual Courageous Leadership Award from Credo Higher Education. This award recognizes a college or university president who exemplifies leadership and dedication to the betterment of their higher education institution, its students, and the community it serves.
The award will be presented at the Council for Independent Colleges’ (CIC) Presidents Institute Presidential Appreciation Dinner, to be held Jan. 5 in San Antonia, Texas.
Dunsworth became the 25th president of U of O on June 1, 2013. Under his leadership over the past 12 years, enrollment has grown more than 30 percent; the University has raised $113 million for new facilities, scholarships and programs; and Ozarks has significantly expanded its academic and athletic offerings.
“Rich is a compelling leader who sees potential in everyone with whom he comes into contact,” said Dr. Joretta Nelson, Credo’s vice chairman. “At the same time, he sets high standards for excellence, achievement, and outcomes, and inspires others to reach for and achieve those goals. Rich is a student-learning-first president, centering his own calling and that of his board and team to keep service to students at the heart of their daily work. Throughout his presidency, Rich has created and led through vision and strategy that encompasses both head and heart.”
A first-generation college graduate, Dunsworth has emphasized making an Ozarks education affordable and accessible, leading efforts for the University to freeze tuition in nine of the past 10 years and to provide $10.8 million in scholarship support to students each year. As a result, the University has been recognized as the No. 1 “Best Value” institution in the 12-state South region by U.S. News & World Report for the last two years.
“The Courageous Leadership Award is yet another testament to President Dunsworth’s steadfast commitment to providing a high-quality university experience for all students,” said Susan Pinson, chair of the U of O Board of Trustees. “He works with his leadership team to maximize funding programs, grants, and other opportunities to ensure students have the resources and tools necessary to engage in and graduate from University of the Ozarks prepared to contribute to their communities.”
Ozarks graduates are finding success after graduation as evidenced by the fact that over the past eight years, the employment and graduate school placement success rate of U of O graduates is 95 percent.
“Our graduates are tenacious,” Dunsworth said. “They’re gritty, diligent and upon graduation they have the skills and abilities to be hired, to get into grad school, and to do the types of things they set out to do when they enrolled at Ozarks. The other factor is that our faculty know why we’re here. We’re here to educate students, transform their lives, and put them on a trajectory that a bachelor’s degree is intended to provide.”
Dunsworth has also spearheaded the enhancement of campus facilities during his tenure, including a major renovation of Munger-Wilson Chapel, the completion of the new Wilson Science Center and Wilson Athletic Complex, and the current construction of the largest facility project in University history, a new $27 million residence hall. He has also helped the University positively impact the local Clarksville community through partnerships and alliances with local businesses that have helped revitalize the downtown area.
“Rich Dunsworth has been a colleague and mentor for the last decade as I have journeyed through higher education leadership,” said Dr. Travis Feezell, provost at Belmont Abbey College and a former chief academic officer at U of O. “His broad knowledge and experience as well as his generosity have been vital to my own development. He has, I believe, a great love of University of the Ozarks which is grounded in his commitment to students and his fierce desire to provide higher education access to those with barriers. Higher education for him has this beautiful transformative power that should be experienced by as many as possible. For all of this, he is a gifted higher ed leader.”
Dunsworth was elected chair of the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Board of Trustees in September. He first joined the nation’s largest institutional accrediting agency as a peer reviewer in 2007 and was elected in 2018 to an initial four-year term on the HLC Board of Trustees.
He previously served on the NCAA DIII President’s Council and on the board of directors for the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities. He is the past chair of the President’s Council of the Arkansas Independent Colleges and Universities (AICU). Earlier this year, we was named a finalist by Arkansas Business in the publication’s 2024 statewide Executive of the Year award. In 2023, he was awarded the prestigious Pillar of Progress Award from the Clarksville-Johnson County Chamber of Commerce.
Before joining Ozarks, Dunsworth was an administrator for 22 years at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, where he served as interim president and vice president for enrollment.
A native of Colorado, Dunsworth earned a bachelor of arts in political science from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, becoming the first person in his family to obtain a college degree. He went on to earn a master’s degree in education in 1994 from Eastern Illinois University in Charleston and a juris doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002. He also earned certification from the institute for educational management program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2008.
To view the announcement from Credo, visit HERE
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