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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.