Glena Temple

Glena Temple, Ph.D., serves as the eleventh President of Dominican University, since August 2021. Dr. Temple previously served as the President of Viterbo University, and is a veteran of higher education leadership as well as a scholar in botany and plant sciences. Temple?s career at Viterbo started as a member of the biology faculty in 2001. Temple went on to serve as department chair, honors program co-director, dean and vice president for academic affairs. She left Viterbo in 2014-2015 to serve as the founding dean of online and distance education for the University of Wisconsin Colleges, a unit of the University of Wisconsin System, where she helped achieve significant growth. Temple returned to Viterbo in 2015 as vice president for academic affairs, a role in which she strengthened high impact practices across academics and directed a $2 million U.S. Department of Education grant focused on retention and student success. In 2017, Temple became Viterbo?s ninth president. She also oversaw growth in the endowment fund, from approximately $43 million to more than $60 million. Under her leadership, the university expanded graduate enrollment and added programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Beyond her nearly two decades of service to Viterbo, Temple has held faculty positions at the University of Wisconsin Colleges, Victor Valley College, Anoka-Ramsey Community College, and worked as a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Minnesota. Her published writing includes peer-reviewed scholarship on topics ranging from bioinformatics education and strengthening undergraduate research to biotechnology and plant and soil health. In 2022, Temple was selected for the prestigious Daniel Burnham Fellowship from Leadership Greater Chicago, the region?s premier civic leadership development incubator selecting only 25 C-suite senior executives each year. Temple also serves as a peer reviewer for the Higher Learning Commission. She currently serves on the Board of Gunderson Health System, the Communityworks Advisory Board of the Oak Park-River Forest Community Foundation, and the Associated Colleges of Illinois. Temple earned a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania, a Master of Arts in Educational Policy and Administration from the University of Minnesota, and a doctorate in Botany and Plant Sciences from the University of California?Riverside. She also has completed a number of leadership programs, including the institute for Educational Management at Harvard.