Biography
Edward T. Bonahue, Ph.D.
President - Suffolk County Community College • Long Island, New York
Dr. Ed Bonahue is the President of Suffolk County Community College, the largest community
college in the State of New York (SUNY) system. SUNY Suffolk is a comprehensive publicly-supported,
two-year, open enrollment institution, with campuses in Selden, Riverhead and Brentwood,
and downtown centers in Sayville and Riverhead. The College has a current enrollment
of more than 23,000 credit students and 7,000 continuing education students. Dr. Bonahue
is a seasoned higher education executive with more than 20 years of experience in
community college education, including service as a tenured faculty member and executive
administrative leader.
Prior to joining the College on June 28, 2021, Dr. Bonahue served as the Provost and
Vice President for Academic Affairs at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida. In
that role, he provided leadership for planning, management, and assessment of all
credit and non-credit instructional programming, and economic and workforce development
initiatives. He successfully implemented nine new baccalaureate programs and multiple
associate of science degree and certificate programs, as well as established two deferred-admission
partnerships with the University of Florida. In addition, he served as the Associate
Vice President for Academic Affairs; Chair, Department of Humanities and Foreign Languages;
Co-chair, International Education Initiative; Co-chair, SACS Reaccreditation Steering
Committee; Assistant Chair and adjunct coordinator, Department of Creative Arts &
Humanities; and Assistant/associate professor of Humanities and Theatre. Earlier in
his career, Dr. Bonahue held positions of visiting assistant professor of humanities
at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Florida, and instructor
of English at the University of North Carolina.
In addition to his academic experience, Dr. Bonahue was the managing editor for The
Southern Literary Journal University of North Carolina; managing editor, Shakespeare
Quarterly, Folger Shakespeare Library; and editor, U.S. General Services Administration.
In 2009, Dr. Bonahue was a Fulbright Scholar with the U.S. International Administrators
Program in Germany, and in 2016-2017, he was an Aspen Institute College Excellence
Program Presidential Fellow.
Dr. Bonahue earned a Ph.D. in English literature at the University of North Carolina;
M.A. in English literature at the University of North Carolina; and B.A. in English
literature from Wake Forest University.
