Dr. William Heineman is Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs at Northern Essex Community College in Massachusetts. In 23 years at Northern Essex, he has served as a faculty member, department chair, program coordinator, dean of two different divisions, and since 2011 vice president. In those roles he has been committed to helping more students succeed. He has fostered holistic approaches to the student experience, creation of the first competency-based education credential in the Massachusetts Public Higher Education system, open educational resource initiatives that have saved students over $1 million in course material costs, the development of improved data capacity to measure student progress, more robust learning outcomes assessment, general education reform, and new academic program development.

Dr. Heineman serves on the boards of the National Council of Instructional Administrators and the Teaching Academic Survival and Success Conference. He also serves on accreditation site visit teams for the New England Commission on Higher Education. Dr. Heineman presents regularly on Northern Essex Community College’s work as part of the Achieving the Dream initiative, open educational resources, and other student success projects. He earned his doctorate of education degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2011, where his dissertation focused on the use of data in community college decision-making about online distance education. Dr. Heineman also holds a master in public policy degree from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and a BA in history from the University of Rochester.