Eduardo Padrón is president emeritus of Miami Dade College. The largest degree-granting institution in America, Miami Dade College enrolls and graduates more students of color than any other US institution, including the largest numbers of Hispanic and African American students. Under Padrón’s leadership, Miami Dade College has received national recognition for its long-standing involvement with its urban community, its catalytic effect for social and economic change, and the difference the college has made in student access and success.

Padrón has received numerous awards, including being elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Science in 2018 and being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Obama in 2016. Padrón’s leadership extends to many of the nation’s leading organizations. He is past chair of the board of directors of the American Council on Education and the Association of American Colleges and Universities and is former chair of the Business-Higher Education Forum. During his career, he has been selected to serve in posts of national prominence by five American presidents.

He has served on several national commissions, including the Aspen Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Knight Foundation.

He serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Urban Institute, the Spencer Foundation, The Education Trust, and other organizations. In past years, he has held leadership positions on the boards of the Federal Reserve Board of Atlanta Miami Branch Office (past chair), the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Achieving the Dream, the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (chair), and elsewhere.

An American by choice, Padrón arrived in the United States as a teenage refugee in 1961.

An economist by training, Padrón earned his PhD from the University of Florida.