President Alger shares expertise with GenEdge Alliance

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe has appointed Jonathan R. Alger, president of James Madison University, to the GenEdge Alliance, also known as the A.L. Philpott Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Board of Trustees.

GenEdge Alliance, established in 1992, is a business consulting organization that provides Virginia’s industrial and manufacturing sectors access to expert business solutions, which otherwise are often only accessible to larger companies. The organization helps create and maintain jobs in industry and manufacturing.

Alger has served as JMU’s chief executive officer since July 1, 2012. Before joining the university, he was senior vice president and general counsel at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. His earlier experience was as assistant general counsel at the University of Michigan, counsel for the American Association of University Professors, attorney-advisor in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, and as an associate in the Labor and Employment Section of the international law firm of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.

This latest appointment continues Alger’s commitment to service beyond JMU. He currently serves on the Division I Board of Directors for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. He is past president of the Board of Directors of the National Association of College and University Attorneys, which named him a life member in 2013.

He previously served on the American Bar Association’s Accreditation Committee, and has served on several accreditation site visit teams. He has also served as a public member of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's Advisory Council at the National Institutes of Health, which provides advice and oversight on grant applications to support biomedical research and research training activities. He has served on national advisory boards for the Association of American Universities, College Board Access and Diversity Collaborative, American Association for the Advancement of Science Diversity Project (focused on the pipeline in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics disciplines), Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Valuing Diversity initiative (aimed at health disparities and diversification of the health professions), Center for Excellence in Higher Education Law and Policy at Stetson University College of Law, and the University of Vermont’s annual national conference on Legal Issues in Higher Education.

Alger received his B.A. with High Honors and Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College (political science major, history minor and public policy concentration), and his J.D. with Honors from Harvard Law School.

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