About Dr. Daniel Barwick

Daniel Barwick is a higher education administrator, journalist, teacher, author, educational consultant, podcaster, blogger, and fundraiser. He is currently President of The Mortarboard™, a higher education media content platform that includes the Mortarboard Podcast™ (the most popular higher education podcast in the world), the Mortarboard Blog™, a publishing company devoted exclusively to issues in higher education, and higher education consulting services in the areas of Fundraising, Capital Campaign Feasibility, Legislative Strategy, Strategic Planning, Outcomes Assessment, Accreditation, and Crisis Management. He is also Director of Development for the College of Health and Human Services at Indiana State University. See consolidated resume here.

Barwick was formerly the President of Independence Community College in Kansas. During his time in Kansas, his institution was named #32 on CNN Money’s 2013 list of Best Community Colleges in US, Ranked #1 in 2017 in Kansas for Success of Transfer Students, in 2015 named Top 5 Most Affordable in US, and in 2016 named in Top 1% of Community Colleges for Student Educational Goal Attainment. Prior to his role in Kansas, he was the Director of Institutional Advancement at Alfred State College and Executive Director of the Alfred State College Development Fund in New York, where he was also a tenured faculty member, teaching philosophy. He was also a Provost Fellow and Academic Policy and Planning Evaluation Associate for the statewide higher education system in New York, leading the system’s outcomes assessment initiatives.

Barwick earned a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Geneseo, a master’s degree from the University of Iowa, and a Ph.D. from SUNY Buffalo, all in philosophy. He was a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) for ten years, the most demanding independent certification. He attended the Asheville Institute for General Education, and the CASE Institute for Educational Fundraising.t.  

Besides his higher education podcast, The Mortarboard, Barwick writes a blog of the same name. He is the author of dozens of publications, primarily on educational administration and his philosophical interests, which include ethics, cognitive science, and metaphysics. He was also a 2019 guest blogger for the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship. His latest book, Risk and Reward: How Small Colleges Get Better Against the Odds, appeared in May 2020. He has made more than one hundred presentations, both nationally and internationally, primarily on fundraising, administration, and his philosophical interests.