Lehman College has a new interim president, following the promotion of José Luis Cruz as executive vice chancellor and provost and university provost for The City University of New York (CUNY). CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez has appointed Daniel Lemons to take the helm of CUNY’s only four-year college in the Bronx beginning July 1.
"It is an honor to have been asked by CUNY Chancellor Matos Rodríguez to serve as interim president of Lehman College. In the coming year we will work together to advance the goals President Cruz set for Lehman to the next level," said Lemons.
Lemons is currently Lehman’s interim dean of Academic Affairs in the Office of the Provost. He has been with CUNY for 30 years, serving as a faculty member and senior administrator.
"Serving Lehman College this year as interim dean of academic affairs has been a rich experience," Lemons said. "It will be an added privilege to work for another year with outstanding colleagues who strive every day to offer the best education possible to our remarkable students."
A faculty member—and now professor emeritus—in the Department of Biology at City College, Lemons specialized in cardiovascular and comparative physiology. During his tenure at City College he served in a number of senior administrative positions, including provost and senior vice president for Academic Affairs, dean of the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies, and dean of the Division of Science.
Lemons was one of the original faculty members of the City College based New York Center for Biomedical Engineering, which became a CUNY doctoral program and later a new Department of Biomedical Engineering.
From 2007-2008, he was associate provost and dean for doctoral science programs at the CUNY Graduate Center, where he led a comprehensive reorganization of CUNY's doctoral programs in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields.
Lemons began his career at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. From 1978 to 1990, he served first as a research associate and then as an assistant professor of pharmacology and director of research in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine.
While he was at City College, the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation funded Lemons’ work for over 15 years. He has also led a number of funded projects for innovation in undergraduate science education, and has published and presented widely in the fields of biomedical engineering and science education. Lemons holds a U.S. patent for hands-on biomechanics teaching models and invented a mechanical heart simulator now used in many graduate and undergraduate programs in the U.S. and abroad.
Lemons took a one-year leave of absence from CUNY in 2012 to co-found the Global Energy Model Institute, an NGO that focused on developing clean, sustainable, and replicable energy projects in regions of extreme poverty in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Lemons received his doctorate from Columbia University, his Master of Science from Portland State University, and his Bachelor of Arts from Goshen College. He lives in the village of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, where since 2015 he has been an elected trustee focusing on environmental and sustainability issues.