Temple University not only enjoys the leadership of JoAnne Epps ’73 at the helm of its law school, but now it has chosen another Trinity alumnus as its president. Neil D. Theobald ’78 began his tenure as Temple’s 10th president on January 1, 2013. Theobald came to Temple from Indiana University, where he had been senior vice president since 2007. He previously served as the senior vice provost at the University’s flagship campus in Bloomington and as special assistant to IU’s president.

In addition to his administrative responsibilities at Temple, Theobald holds a professorship in education finance. His research interests in the appropriate role of decentralization in educational financing and in modeling educational labor markets are reflected in more than $1.5 million in funded research, numerous books and book chapters, dozens of articles published in professional journals, and nearly 50 policy reports for state governments across the United States. At Indiana University, Dr. Theobald directed a research center that assisted state governments in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Iowa, and Washington in devising education funding processes that equitably facilitated academic excellence. In addition, Theobald was a three-time winner of IU’s Teaching Excellence Recognition Award.

A native of Peoria, Illinois, Theobald had planned to enter an electrician’s apprenticeship after high school. However, an Illinois Scholarship made it possible for him to attend Trinity, and he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1978. After a short time in the corporate world, Theobald began his education career as a secondary school mathematics teacher in the state of Washington, where he also coached baseball. He subsequently served as both an assistant professor and an associate professor at the University of Washington, where he earned a doctoral degree in educational finance in 1988.