Dorothy E. Habben, Ph.D. serves as Vice
President and Secretary of the University. She earned her B.A. from
Adelphi University, M.A. from St. John’s University, and Ph.D. from
New York University. In her capacity, she is the administrative
liaison to the University’s Board of Trustees and its Executive
Committee and has responsibility for communications with trustees;
orientation of new Board members; advising members of the
University community, as appropriate, of Board actions; maintaining
all official records of the Board, including minutes, and retaining
custody of the University charter and seal. She is also signatory
for key institutional documents. In addition, she serves as
Institutional Accreditation Officer and, as such, is the liaison
between St. John’s and all of its various accrediting agencies,
including the University’s regional accrediting agency, The Middle
States Commission on Higher Education, and discipline-specific
agencies. She is also the University’s liaison with the New York
State Education Department.
She began what was to be a lifelong career at St. John’s when
she became a graduate assistant in the Department of English and
began her graduate studies in what was at the time the Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences. She subsequently joined the English
faculty and taught full-time before joining the administration. Her
initial appointment was as Dean of Academic Planning; she then
founded the Office of Grants and Sponsored Research and served as
its Director before moving to the President’s Office.
Dr. Habben served for almost 20 years as a trustee of another
University in the New York metropolitan area and held posts as Vice
Chair of the Board and Chair of the Academic Affairs Committee. She
has served as Chair or team member for numerous Middle States peer
evaluation teams and has also been a consultant and evaluator for
the New York State Department of Education.
Dr. Habben graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s
degree in English from Adelphi University and went on to earn
graduate degrees in the same discipline, an M.A. from St. John’s
University and a Ph.D. from New York University.