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Wally Boston

Wally Boston
Dr. Wallace E. Boston was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of American Public University System (APUS) and its parent company, American Public Education, Inc. (APEI) in July 2004. He joined APUS as its Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in 2002. In July 2016, he retired as APUS president and continued as CEO of APEI. In September 2017, he was reappointed APUS president after the resignation of Dr. Karan Powell. In September 2019, Angela Selden was named CEO of APEI, succeeding Dr. Boston who will remain APUS president until his planned retirement in June 2020. Dr. Boston guided APUS through its successful initial accreditation with the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association in 2006 and ten-year reaccreditation in 2011. In November 2007, he led APEI to an initial public offering on the NASDAQ Exchange. During his tenure, APUS grew to over 100,000 students, 200 degree and certificate programs, and approximately 90,000 alumni. In addition to his service as a board member of APUS and APEI, Dr. Boston is a member of the Board of Advisors of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), a member of the Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education, a board member of the Presidents’ Forum, and a board member of Hondros College of Nursing and Fidelis, Inc. He has authored and co-authored papers on the topic of online post-secondary student retention, and is a frequent speaker on the impact of technology on higher education. Dr. Boston is a past Treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the McDonogh School, a private K-12 school in Baltimore. In his career prior to APEI and APUS, Dr. Boston served as either CFO, COO, or CEO of Meridian Healthcare, Manor Healthcare, Neighborcare Pharmacies, and Sun Healthcare Group. Dr. Boston is a Certified Public Accountant, Certified Management Accountant, and Chartered Global Management Accountant. He earned an A.B. degree in History from Duke University, an MBA in Marketing and Accounting from Tulane University’s Freeman School of Business Administration, and a Doctorate in Higher Education Management from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. In 2008, the Board of Trustees of APUS awarded him a Doctorate in Business Administration, honoris causa, and, in April 2017, also bestowed him with the title President Emeritus. Dr. Boston lives in Owings Mills, MD with his wife Sharon and their two daughters.
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Online Education

The Future of Space Studies Programs and Space Exploration

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Dr. Patrick Ford was the founding Program Director for the APUS Space Studies program and led that program for 10 years from 2000-2010. In addition to developing the original curriculum, Dr. Ford hired our original faculty members, some of whom were retired U.S. astronauts. I reached out to Pat and asked him if he would answer a few questions about the program and his thoughts about space studies going forward.
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Current Events

Social Distancing Worked, So How Do We Restart the Economy?

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A friend of mine owns a restaurant that closed after the governor of Maryland ordered non-essential businesses to close and for no one to assemble in groups of more than 10 people. His situation is not unique: in any city or state with similar emergency regulations, the only restaurants open provide carryout. Because of our friendship and my background in finance, he asked me if I would help him build a set of projections to reflect the restart of his business. Building the spreadsheet was not difficult, since he had detailed historical financials by month going back years. The difficult part was dealing with the uncertainty of when the business would be allowed to reopen.
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Current Events

From University to Home: Adapting to Change in Our Daily Lives

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Nationwide, all aspects of higher education were forced to quickly adapt to the deep and widespread changes necessitated by mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic. While the movement to work from home has impacted all of us differently, I'm proud of what we have collectively accomplished at American Public University System and in higher education as a whole. By making the decision to "social distance" and then "work remotely," I believe we minimized the potential spread of the virus to all of us.
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Online Education

‘Illumine’: The Power of an Online Classroom Format

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One of my favorite memories of graduate school was from the morning we discussed John Milton’s epic poem Paradise Lost. Nerdy, I know. Thirty years later, I still remember the more than hour-long conversation we had about the title. The title! The professor asked us why we thought Milton chose to put the adjective after the noun instead of before it.
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Current Events

How One University Has Adapted to Online Learning (Part 2)

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In the second part of this blog interview, Dr. Karan Powell and Father Malachi further explain Saint Francis University's conversion to an online learning format.
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Lifestyle

The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo: An Unforgettable Event

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My husband, Dale, and I lived in England from 2005-2009 while stationed in the U.S. Air Force. Each year, we tried to get tickets to the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, but the tickets sold out so fast we were never quick enough to purchase them. It wasn’t until nine years later, after Dale had retired and we lived in Tennessee, that we decided to try and purchase these fast-selling tickets and return to the United Kingdom to attend one of the most popular military tattoos in the world.
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Saint Francis University Campus
Current Events

How One University Has Adapted to Online Learning (Part 1)

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Saint Francis University is one of the oldest Catholic universities in the United States with an enrollment of approximately 2,300 students and a Division 1 athletic program. I was curious how they converted from face-to-face courses to online learning, and Dr. Powell and Father Malachi Van Tassell agreed to provide me with answers to a few of my questions.
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Current Events

We Will Get Through This Coronavirus Pandemic Together

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In January, I went to sleep one night and woke up the next morning, unable to breathe. I was literally gasping for breath. I had a dry cough, no sense of smell, a throbbing headache, and a low-grade fever. Yet I had no symptoms the day before: no cold, no cough, not even the sniffles.
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Current Events

A Letter from the APUS Chaplain

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You are not alone – we need one another to remind each other that it’s OK to feel anxious, afraid and helpless. We are human and wired that way to respond to a threat, even when it is invisible. Feeling out of control is only natural. But we do have control over our inner self-narrative.
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Current Events

Unchartered Territory: Postponing Research Trips for Now

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As an anthropologist, I've been studying wildlife overseas for the last 17 years. The global pandemic has created challenges and upheaval for most of us, personally and professionally.
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