Pradeep Bhardwaj, chair of the UCF Department of Marketing, has been named an ACE Fellow by the American Council on Education (ACE) for the 2023-24 academic year. Following nomination by UCF senior administration and a rigorous application process, Bhardwaj is among 36 fellows selected this year.
“I’m pleased to see that Dr. Bhardwaj has been recognized as an up-and-coming leader by ACE,” says Paul Jarley, dean of the College of Business. “I’m sure this appointment will benefit his host institution as much as it does Pradeep.”
During the placement, fellows observe and work with the president and other senior officers at their host institutions, attend decision-making meetings and focus on issues of interest. Fellows also conduct projects of pressing concern for their home institutions and seek to implement their findings upon completion of the fellowship placement.
Beyond their host institution, fellows attend retreats, interactive learning opportunities, visit other campuses and organizations, and are placed at another higher education institution for further learning. The ACE program condenses years of on-the-job experience and skills development into a single year. At the conclusion, fellows return to their home institutions with new knowledge and skills that contribute to capacity-building efforts, along with a network of peers across the country and abroad.
“It is an absolute honor to be selected as an ACE Fellow and I am extremely grateful for the support of President Alexander N. Cartwright, Provost Michael D. Johnson and Dean Paul Jarley,” says Bhardwaj, a Carl H. Galloway professor of marketing and the doctoral program coordinator for the marketing track of the business administration doctoral program. “I look forward to interacting with senior leadership across a wide spectrum of universities and learning about strategic experimentation and prototyping under systemic disruptions in the educational industry and bringing this knowledge back to UCF.”
Prior to UCF, Bhardwaj served on faculty at the University of California, Los Angeles; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. In Vancouver, he was the BC Innovation Council Chair in Sales and Sales Management. Bhardwaj earned his Ph.D. from the University of Toronto and an MBA from Simon Frasher University, Vancouver. He is an award-winning teacher who has taught at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels and his research has appeared in a variety of publications.
Since its inception in 1965, the ACE Fellows Program has strengthened institutions in American higher education by identifying and preparing more than 2,500 faculty, staff and administrators for senior positions in college and university leadership through its distinctive and intensive cohort-based mentorship model. Of the fellows who have participated to date, more than 80% have gone on to serve as chief executive officers, chief academic officers, deans and other cabinet-level positions.
“The ACE Fellows Program has a proven track record of developing agile leaders, and it fuels the expansion of a talented and diverse higher education leadership pipeline,” says ACE President Ted Mitchell. “ACE fellows engage in unique learning experiences before returning to their home campuses armed with a fresh outlook and distinct skillset. I am excited to see all that this class accomplishes.”
