John Lilley, 2001 - 2005
A native of Louisiana and the son of a Baptist minister, Lilley came to Nevada after serving as the president of Penn State Erie, during which time his 21-year presidency there had led to dramatic and record-setting growth. As University president, Lilley led the campus through a comprehensive strategic planning process and presided over an expansion of the institution’s external funding and the creation of new research centers and institutes to further its scientific outreach. He often challenged the campus to think not in terms of single fiscal years, but to broaden its perspective to five, 10, 20 years into the future, saying, “Some people say that when you get out planning past five years, you’re wasting your time. That’s not true. You need to be bold.”
Through private fundraising and collaboration with the state government and the student body, he achieved approval of approximately $400 million in new buildings to campus. His efforts paved the way for the eventual opening of perhaps the most complex and expensive capital improvement project the University had ever seen – the simultaneous construction of the Joe Crowley Student Union (opened in 2007) and one of the country’s most sophisticated and technologically advanced libraries, the Mathewson-IGT Knowledge Center (opened in 2008).