Office of the President

Deb Bushway, Ph.D.

Dr. Bushway currently serves as the President and CEO at Northwestern Health Sciences University, where she previously served as Provost and Executive Vice President. She has also served as a consultant to the Lumina Foundation regarding Competency Based Education in Higher Education. She was previously an Advisor in the Office of the Undersecretary at the Department of Education in Washington, DC. Prior to this, she was an interim associate Dean at the University of Wisconsin – Extension and the Chief Academic Officer and Vice President of Academic Innovation, Provost and interim President at Capella University. She has long been interested in innovations in higher education designed to improve student success. In fact, she pioneered the development and implementation of a successful competency based, direct assessment program. This delivery model strives to improve transparency of learning outcomes while reducing costs and improving completion rates for adults working to earn postsecondary degrees. She has expertise in distance education and its surrounding technologies, including LMS, student success solutions, adaptive learning and financial aid delivery.

Dr. Bushway has more than 20 years of experience in higher education, including 17 years with Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she held a variety of faculty and leadership roles. She earned both her Master of Science and Ph.D. in Psychology from Iowa State University. She has authored numerous articles, book chapters and conference presentations throughout her career. She recently co-authored the book “A Leader’s Guide to Competency-Based Education: From Inception to Implementation”. In addition to ongoing professional interests regarding adult learners in higher education, Bushway is currently focused on methods of innovation in established institutions, the application of action analytics to higher education and the power of competency based education to support our nation’s educational goals.

The Board of Trustees appointed Dr. Deb Bushway as the President of Northwestern Health Sciences University on November 12, 2018.

On May 31st, Dr. Deb Bushway was inaugurated as the eighth President of the University. 

Download Dr. Bushway’s full inauguration address here (PDF).

Community Highlights

Dr. Bushway was featured in Minneapolis.St.Paul Magazine’s Women Who Move Minnesota edition October 2019.

City of Bloomington Chamber president Kim Hansen featured Dr. Bushway in her “Conversations with Kim” series.