Johnson Center names interim executive director

William Crawley will formally assume the role of interim executive director of Grand Valley State University’s Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy Wednesday, February 19. Crawley has served in an acting role for the past six months following a medical leave for Executive Director James Edwards.

Crawley is the associate dean of the College of Community and Public Service (CCPS) at Grand Valley. He started at the university as a professor of criminology in 2002, and moved to the CCPS dean’s office in 2009.

Crawley completed Harvard Graduate School of Education’s Management Development Program (MDP) in 2008. In 2009, he served as the director of the Japanese Center for Michigan Universities (JCMU) in Hikone, Japan, where he was also a JCMU Academic Fellow. He was an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow at DePaul University in Chicago throughout the 2010-11 academic year, during which time he coordinated the development of the university’s 10th college (The College of Science and Health).

Crawley has a bachelor’s degree in resource management from Iowa State University, and a bachelor’s degree in Asian studies and Japanese language from the University of Iowa. He has a master’s degree in criminal justice and Graduate Certification in drug & alcohol studies with an emphasis in neuro-psycho-pharmacology from the University of South Carolina. Crawley has a doctorate in criminal justice from the University of Nebraska, specializing in criminal theory and comparative criminology.

Crawley has significant experience with community-based research, linking university and community for more than a decade. He serves as the CCPS associate for university development, and as a board member for various non-profit organizations, both positions providing leadership for strategic planning and fundraising initiatives.