Five Fascinating Facts About President-elect Harlan Sands
Harlan M. Sands has been named the seventh president of Cleveland State University. President-elect Sands brings nearly two decades of experience as an administrator and faculty member at urban research universities to CSU.
President-elect Sands will arrive at Cleveland State on July 1 from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, one of the top business schools in the world. He has also held leadership positions at the University of Louisville, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Florida International University.
President-elect Sands’ experience goes well beyond higher education. Here are five fascinating facts about the next president of Cleveland State University.
1. He donated bone marrow under the Department of Defense Marrow Donor Program.
President-elect Sands joined the military straight out of college as an ROTC student and eventually achieved the rank of lieutenant commander. During his tour at the Pentagon, he entered the bone marrow registry and was identified as a match for donating marrow.
2. He worked as a White House military aide.
During his time in the Navy, President-elect Sands was appointed as a White House military aide. He served under both President George H. W. Bush and President Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1993. In this role, he assisted in coordinating official White House military functions, including state dinners, treaty signings, diplomatic receptions, media events and visits.
3. He worked as a public defender in Miami.
President-elect Sands received his law degree from George Mason University and spent four years as an assistant public defender in Florida’s Eleventh Judicial Court in Miami. The fourth largest trial court in the nation serves a population of over 2 million people.
He drew on that experience as a faculty member in Florida International University’s Department of Criminal Justice, where he taught both undergraduate and graduate students. President-elect Sands developed curricula and taught 10 distinct courses, including Judicial Policy Making, Justice and the Law, Juvenile Delinquency and Control, Criminal Law, and Criminal Procedure.
4. He led a cutting-edge research center.
Environmental science, energy security and defense technology: These are some of the complex issues the Applied Research Center (ARC) at Florida International University tackled under the leadership of President-elect Sands. As associate vice president for research and executive director of the center, he oversaw a staff of 70 scientists and directed over $10 million in projects every year. During his tenure, ARC solidified its partnerships with the U.S. government to develop environmental cleanup technologies and address energy technology challenges in Latin America.
5. He has served as a Big Brother.
President-elect Sands has given back to the communities where he has lived in many ways. One of the organizations he has been most passionate about is Big Brothers Big Sisters. He has served as a Big Brother for many years, also serving on the board of directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Birmingham, leading the board as its president in 2014-2015. He has also served on the board of directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Kentuckiana.