Robin E. Brown Makes History in Arkansas

Robin E. Bowen has been selected as the 12th president of Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. The university enrolls about 10,000 undergraduate students and nearly 1,000 graduate students. Women make up 55 percent of the undergraduate student body. When she becomes president of Arkansas Tech University in July, Dr. Bowen not only will be the institution’s first woman president but will be the first woman to lead any state-operated four-year university in the state of Arkansas.

In 2011, Dr. Bowen was appointed vice president for academic affairs at Fitchburg State University in Massachusetts. In July 2013 she was promoted to executive vice president and provost at Fitchburg State. Earlier in her career, Dr. Bowen held administrative posts at Donnelly College in Kansas City, Kansas, Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas, and Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri.

A native of Carl Junction, Missouri, Dr. Bowen is a graduate of the University of Kansas, where she majored in occupational therapy. She earned a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from the University of Arkansas and a doctorate in higher education administration from Texas Tech University in Lubbock.